The Genetic basis of host resistance and pathogen virulence in the Septoria-Wheat pathosystem

Increasing agricultural sustainability has become more than ever a priority.

In this sense, wheat plays a central role in EU agriculture as a major crop, and controlling yield losses due to diseases can be a serious bottleneck for agricultural sustainability.

Septoria tritici blotch (STB) caused by Zymoseptoria tritici, is a globally occurring fungal disease that causes severe yield losses on wheat and is the source of a massive fungicide applications in the EU.

Furthermore, Z. tritici populations evolve rapidly and their adaptation to the proposed control measures (monogenic resistance, fungicides) is a well-known phenomenon.

Thus, breeding polygenic STB-resistant varieties is timely and represent the most durable and economic way to limit disease epidemics and reduce fungicide dependecy.

However, this cannot be achieved without a thorough understanding of host-pathogen interactions and an extensive knowledge of (1) host resistances and their effectiveness in pathogen populations (2) pathogen virulence factors and mechanisms of overcoming host resistance.

The research proposed here, “The Genetic basis of host resistance and pathogen virulence in the Septoria-Wheat pathosystem (SEPTOWHEAT)”, aims to address these gaps by using state-of-the-art genomics and genetic resources, to meet the challenges of STB resistance breeding and pathogen’s rapid adaptation.

The project will be articulated in three integrated objectives: (1) genetic mapping of novel resistance loci/genes from diverse tetraploid wheats (2) identification of the corresponding pathogen (a)virulence genes and (3) development of diagnostic molecular assays to accelerate resistance introgression into elite pre-breeding material.

SEPTOWHEAT will have numerous outcomes on durable STB resistance, reducing fungicide use within the EU, and will significantly contribute to our understanding of host-pathogen genetic in an important agricultural system.