Dwarfing gene Rht24 does not affect Fusarium head blight resistance in a large European winter wheat diversity panel

Abstract Reduced height ( Rht ) genes are widely used in modern wheat breeding although some confer higher susceptibility to Fusarium head blight (FHB) caused by F. graminearum and other species. Our objective was test whether the recently identified Rht24b dwarfing allele has a neutral effect on FHB response as reported previously from single mapping population when unrelated winter cultivars were analyzed. We artificially infected panel of 420 divided into four genotypic groups Rht24a + Rht-D1a , Rht-D1a, Rht-D1b, Rht-D1b with culmorum five location-year combinations. High significant (P ? 0.001) genetic variance for severity plant (PH) found entire well within both traits showed high entry-mean heritabilities 0.92 0.98, respectively. had no whereas increased 37%. The 29 most resistant either tallness alleles above mentioned Rht-D1 gene or alone. combination significantly than However, reduced average PH only 6.8 cm, conferred reduction 13.6 cm. For short, FHB-resistant germplasm Rht24 must be complemented further QTL FHB-neutral genes.