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A major QTL for resistance to Gibberella stalk rot in maize

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Abstract

Fusarium graminearum Schwabe, the conidial form of Gibberella zeae, is the causal fungal pathogen responsible for Gibberella stalk rot of maize. Using a BC1F1 backcross mapping population derived from a cross between ‘1145’ (donor parent, completely resistant) and ‘Y331’ (recurrent parent, highly susceptible), two quantitative trait loci (QTLs), qRfg1 and qRfg2, conferring resistance to Gibberella stalk rot have been detected. The major QTL qRfg1 was further confirmed in the double haploid, F2, BC2F1, and BC3F1 populations. Within a qRfg1 confidence interval, single/low-copy bacterial artificial chromosome sequences, anchored expressed sequence tags, and insertion/deletion polymorphisms, were exploited to develop 59 markers to saturate the qRfg1 region. A step by step narrowing-down strategy was adopted to pursue fine mapping of the qRfg1 locus. Recombinants within the qRfg1 region, screened from each backcross generation, were backcrossed to ‘Y331’ to produce the next backcross progenies. These progenies were individually genotyped and evaluated for resistance to Gibberella stalk rot. Significant (or no significant) difference in resistance reactions between homozygous and heterozygous genotypes in backcross progeny suggested presence (or absence) of qRfg1 in ‘1145’ donor fragments. The phenotypes were compared to sizes of donor fragments among recombinants to delimit the qRfg1 region. Sequential fine mapping of BC4F1 to BC6F1 generations enabled us to progressively refine the qRfg1 locus to a ~500-kb interval flanked by the markers SSR334 and SSR58. Meanwhile, resistance of qRfg1 to Gibberella stalk rot was also investigated in BC3F1 to BC6F1 generations. Once introgressed into the ‘Y331’ genome, the qRfg1 locus could steadily enhance the frequency of resistant plants by 32–43%. Hence, the qRfg1 locus was capable of improving maize resistance to Gibberella stalk rot.

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Acknowledgments

We greatly appreciate the effort of Prof. Schuyler S. Korban from University of Illinois to thoroughly edit English language for this manuscript. We are grateful to Prof. Xiaoming Wang from Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences for his help in inoculum preparation and symptom diagnose in the field. This study was financially supported by the national outstanding youth foundation of China, grant No. 30525035; the national ‘863’ high-tech program of China, grant Nos. 2006AA10A107 and 2006AA10A103; the national ‘973’ basic research program; and the Beijing agricultural innovative platform-Beijing natural science fund program, grant No. D08070500690802.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Maize Improvement Center of China, China Agricultural University, 2 West Yuanmingyuan Road, Beijing, 100193, People’s Republic of China

    Qin Yang, Guangming Yin, Yanling Guo, Dongfeng Zhang, Shaojiang Chen & Mingliang Xu

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  1. Qin Yang
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  2. Guangming Yin
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  3. Yanling Guo
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  4. Dongfeng Zhang
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  5. Shaojiang Chen
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  6. Mingliang Xu
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Correspondence to Mingliang Xu.

Additional information

Communicated by M. Bohn.

Q. Yang and G. Yin contributed equally to this research.

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Yang, Q., Yin, G., Guo, Y. et al. A major QTL for resistance to Gibberella stalk rot in maize. Theor Appl Genet 121, 673–687 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00122-010-1339-0

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