Transfer of wild relative introgressions into durum from hexaploid wheat for exploitation in research and breeding

Introgressions of wild relative chromosome segments into the genome of wheat provide an almost untapped source of genetic variation. Two wheat- Triticum timopheevii introgression lines generated at the Wheat Research Centre (WRC) at the University of Nottingham were previously reported to carry Type 1 resistance to Fusarium head blight (FHB), with the resistance located to an introgression from chromosome 3G of T. timopheevii . Further analyses of these introgression lines, however, has recently shown that the 3G segment confers a potent type II resistance in hexaploid wheat, leading to reduced loss of grain weight and reduced deoxynivalenol (DON) accumulation in grain. Resistance levels to FHB are particularly low in durum wheat where resistance genes identified in hexaploid wheat have had little or no effect when transferred into durum wheat. Here we demonstrate that the 3G introgression is effective against FHB infection and DON accumulation in grain when transferred to a durum wheat background.