I think that there is an increasing interest and concern worldwide on the impact of mycotoxins produced by phytopathogenic fungi of the group Fusarium. Fusarium head blight and the associated mycotoxin contamination in cereals have already caused huge economic and social problems. Breeding for resistance is possibly the best option to reduce the impact of this threat in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way. Our paper was among the first (together with publications from colleagues in America) to describe location and effects of quantitative trait loci (QTL) governing Fusarium head blight resistance in wheat, thus opening the possibilities for marker-assisted selection.

The methods we used are not absolutely new, but were combined and used in a skilful way to solve the given problem. I hope that our findings on position and effect of QTL for Fusarium head blight resistance will encourage scientists and plant breeders to enhance their efforts in resistance breeding.

We were able to identify the chromosomal segments of a highly resistant spring wheat genotype, which confer resistance to the fungal pathogen Fusarium. Our work resulted in the independent validation of the locus Qfhs.ndsu-3BS and the discovery of a second locus: Qfhs.ifa-5A. We described molecular markers linked to these two chromosomal segments. Such molecular markers allow a prediction of the presence of the resistance genes using a fairly simple test based on the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). This test is similar to a DNA assay that is used, for instance, by the police to identify a criminal among several suspects. In our case we use the method to identify the resistant plants in breeding populations. We hope that breeding for resistance to Fusarium head blight may become easier and faster with these new tools.

The research presented in the paper is the result of a long-term (over 10 years) commitment in resistance genetics and breeding. With the establishment of the Research Institute for Agrobiotechnology in Tulln (IFA- Tulln, Austria) in 1993, we had the necessary facilities to perform the work. A competitive grant funded by the Austrian Science Fund was essential to the run the project. The publication is the fruit of a collaborative research effort of many people in our lab and in other labs abroad.

Ao. Univ. Prof. Dr. Hermann Buerstmayr
Senior Scientist, Group leader of the research group on plant breeding
Institute for Agrobiotechnology, Tulln
Department of Biotechnology in Plant Production
Tulln, Austria