Gene annotation of the Fhb1 locus on the assembly of bread wheat variety Norin 61

In the areas with wet climate of Eastern Asia, Fusarium head blight (FHB) is a major threat to bread wheat production. A source of FHB resistance (Fhb1) was identified in the Asian wheat germplasm and through classical breeding it was introduced in several varieties (https://doi.org/10.1186/s40066-017-0139-z ). The molecular determinant was identified as a deletion in an  histidine-rich calcium-binding-protein gene on chromosome 3BS. (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-019-0426-7). The allele is common in many East Asia wheat varieties, but not in the reference assembly Chinese Spring (CS). 

The whole-genome assembly of the Japanese variety Norin 61 allowed to confirm the sequence and structure of the haplotype surrounding Fhb1. Given the low amount of sequence conservation with CS at the locus, we noticed that the annotation based on projections of CS gene models (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2961-x) did not identify all genes in the Norin 61 haplotype.

To describe the complete...