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Mutagenesis and analysis of contrasting wheat lines do not support a role for PFT in Fusarium head blight resistance

Nature Genetics volume 57, pages 310–313 (2025) Cite this article

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Abstract

Ambiguity about whether the histidine-rich calcium-binding protein-coding gene (HisR) or the pore-forming toxin-like gene (PFT) or both are responsible for Fusarium head blight (FHB) resistance conferred by the Fhb1 quantitative trait locus hinders progress toward elucidating Fhb1 resistance mechanisms. Here, with a series of developed lines with or without PFT but all possessing HisR and five HisR-carrying PFT mutant lines created via gene editing, we show that PFT does not confer FHB resistance and that the HisR resistance effect does not require PFT in the tested conditions. We also show that PFT mutations are not associated with morphological and phenological characteristics that often affect FHB severity.

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Fig. 1: Disease development after F. graminearum inoculation in ZM27, JM31, SLZ, PH691 and the derived lines varying in the presence of HisR and PFT.
The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.
Fig. 2: PFT editing in Fhb1 NIL R-7 derived from cultivar MY and its effect on FHB resistance.
The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.

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Acknowledgements

This research is partially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 31930081, Z.M.), National Key Research and Development Plan (grant no. 2023YFD1200400, Z.M.), Key Research and Development Plan of Jiangsu Province (grant no. BE2021356, Z.M. and grant no. BE2023363, H.J.), Seed Industry Revitalization Project of Jiangsu Province (grant no. JBGS2021013, Z.M. and grant no. JBGS2021046, G.L.), PAPD of Jiangsu, the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities and Jiangsu collaborative innovation initiative for modern crop production.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Jinxing Shi, Zhongxin Kong, Jinkun Zhong, Xiaoqiu Zhang.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Applied Plant Genomics Laboratory of Crop Genomics and Bioinformatics Centre and State Key Laboratory of Crop Genetics & Germplasm Enhancement and Utilization, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China

    Jinxing Shi, Zhongxin Kong, Jinkun Zhong, Xiaoqiu Zhang, Xianmin Luo, Heyu Wang, Boyang Xu, Xin Wang, Rui Cheng, Yang Yuan, Na Li, Quan Xie, Guoqiang Li, Haiyan Jia & Zhengqiang Ma

  2. Zhongshan Biological Breeding Laboratory, Nanjing, China

    Zhongxin Kong, Yang Yuan, Na Li, Quan Xie, Guoqiang Li, Haiyan Jia & Zhengqiang Ma

Authors
  1. Jinxing Shi
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  2. Zhongxin Kong
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Contributions

J.S., J.Z., X.Z. and G.L. conducted experiments. Z.K. helped with experiment implementation and phenotyping. J.S. and J.Z. analyzed data. J.S. wrote the original draft. G.L. and H.J. helped with project supervision and reviewed the manuscript. X.L., H.W., B.X., X.W. and R.C. participated in phenotyping. Y.Y., N.L. and Q.X. helped with genotyping. Z.M. supervised the project and reviewed and edited the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Guoqiang Li, Haiyan Jia or Zhengqiang Ma.

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Nature Genetics thanks Evans Lagudah and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work. Peer reviewer reports are available.

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Shi, J., Kong, Z., Zhong, J. et al. Mutagenesis and analysis of contrasting wheat lines do not support a role for PFT in Fusarium head blight resistance. Nat Genet 57, 310–313 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-024-02056-3

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