A Deletion Mutation in TaHRC Confers Fhb1 Resistance to Fusarium Head Blight in Wheat

Fusarium head blight (FHB), mainly caused by Fusarium graminearum, is a destructive wheat disease that threatens global wheat production. Fhb1 is a quantitative trait locus (QTL) discovered in Chinese germplasm and provides the most stable and the largest effect on FHB resistance in wheat. Here we show that TaHRC encoding a putative histidine-rich calcium binding protein is the key determinant of Fhb1. We demonstrated that TaHRC encodes a nuclear protein conferring FHB susceptibility, and a deletion mutation including the start codon of this gene results in FHB resistance. Identical sequence of TaHRC-R allele in diverse accessions indicated that Fhb1 had single origin, and phylogenic and haplotype analyses suggested that the TaHRC-R allele most likely originated from the genotypes carrying the Dahongpao haplotype. Cloning of Fhb1 opens a new avenue to improvement of FHB resistance in wheat, possibly in other cereal crops, by manipulation of TaHRC sequence through bioengineering approaches.