Discovery May Flip the Genetic Script on Fungal Threat in Wheat

By Jan Suszkiw

Researchers from the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) have discovered a breakthrough in the fight against Fusarium Head Blight, which is a major disease affecting U.S. wheat and other cereal crops.

Farmers must be diligent for signs of Fusarium Head Blight, a disease of cereal crops that flourishes under wet conditions and high temperatures. Caused by the fungus Fusarium graminearum, the disease inflicts yield losses of more than 1 billion dollars annually in wheat and barley. The disease also produces mycotoxins that can contaminate the crops' grain, limiting its marketability or even rendering it unfit for food or feed uses.

Now, an ARS-led team may have found a way to turn the tables on Fusarium Head Blight, potentially minimizing the threat it poses to consumer health, farmer profits, and a $5.94 billion U.S. wheat export market.

The team's discovery, reported in Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions, centers around a key molecule that the fungus naturally produces, known as FgTPP1.

"This molecule helps the fungus shut off the plant's defenses or weaken them enough that it can grow in the rest of the plant," explained Matthew Helm, team leader and a research molecular biologist with ARS's Crop Production and Pest Control Research Unit in West Lafayette, IN.

FgTPP1 is one of hundreds of molecules that the fungus produces to help it infect wheat plants and cause Fusarium Head Blight. The fact that other disease-causing species of Fusarium also produce FgTPP1 "suggests it serves an important function," Helm said.