Webinar: Novel insights on the genetics of susceptibility to necrotrophic fungal pathogens of durum and bread wheat

Date and Time: Thursday 17 July 2025, 11:00am EDT

Registration: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_W_tUUgYeRxuBa7sVhwnSEA#

Presenter

Agnes Szabo-Hever
Research scientist
North Dakota State University, USA

Outline

Wheat is an important global food crop grown on more than 200 million ha annually. Hard red spring wheat (HRSW) has high protein and strong gluten, which makes it a great choice for artisan hearth breads, bagels, croissants, and pizza crust. Durum wheat is mainly used for pasta production but also to make couscous, bulgur, Mediterranean breads, and different semolina-based products. 

Tan spot and septoria nodorum blotch (SNB) are important foliar diseases of both HRSW and durum wheat caused by the necrotrophic fungal pathogens Pyrenophora tritici-repentis and Parastagonospora nodorum, respectively. These necrotrophic fungal pathogens cause disease when compatible gene-for-gene interactions occur between pathogen-produced necrotrophic effectors (NEs) and corresponding host sensitivity genes. 

A total of 812 HRSW accessions from the USDA National Small Grains Collection and 510 durum accessions from the Global Durum Panel (GDP) were evaluated for reaction to known NEs produced by both pathogens, and the GDP was also evaluated for reaction to tan spot disease. The results revealed marked differences in frequencies of NE sensitivities between bread and durum wheat, and several novel NE sensitivity/susceptibility loci were discovered, indicating that some of the host-NE interactions are more complex than previously thought. 

The relevance of these discoveries and their impacts in breeding HRSW and durum varieties with improved resistance to necrotrophic pathogens will be further discussed in the webinar.

References

• Szabo-Hever A, Running KLD, Seneviratne S, Singh G, Zhang Z, Peters Haugrud AR, Maccaferri M, Tuberosa R, Xu SS, Friesen TL, Faris JD (2024) Evaluation of durum and hard red spring wheat panels for sensitivity to necrotrophic effectors produced by Parastagonospora nodorum. Plant Disease, https://doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-05-24-0990-RE.
• Szabo-Hever A, Singh G, Peters Haugrud AR, Running KLD, Seneviratne S, Zhang Z, Shi G, Bassi FM, Maccaferri M, Cattivelli L, Tuberosa R, Friesen TL, Liu Z, Xu SS, Faris JD (2023) Association mapping of resistance to tan spot in the Global Durum Panel. Phytopathology, https://doi.org/10.1094/PHYTO-02-23-0043-R.