Wheat Fusarium head blight (FHB) is a global wheat disease, and in recent years it has become one of the most important diseases threatening the safe wheat production in China. The disease pandemic not only causes large yield reductions, but the greater threat is that FHB causes the seeds to accumulate DON toxin, which is a serious threat to food safety and human health. In addition, the complex polyploid nature of wheat hinders functional gene discovery and breeding improvement efficiency. Our group is currently conducting research in the following areas:

1. Understanding how F. graminearum overcomes wheat defences

Understanding the mechanisms by which F. graminearum overcomes wheat defences will provide new targets for controlling FHB. Secretory proteins play a key role during fungus-plant interactions. We will study the host targets and virulence mechanisms of these secreted effector proteins of F. graminearum.

2. FHB resistance gene discovery and application to improve wheat FHB resistance

Due to the complexity of the resistance mechanisms and the lack of germplasm resources for FHB resistance, achievements in breeding good resistant cultivars are still unsatisfactory. The identification and characterisation of new major QTLs conferring FHB resistance will be useful in the breeding of resistant cultivars.

3. Improving wheat environmental adaptability through gene editing

Bread wheat is an allohexaploid crop (2n = 6x = 42, AABBDD) in which most genes have three similar copies with functional redundancy in the A, B and D subgenomes. Therefore, the probability of simultaneous mutation of homologous genes in the A, B and D subgenomes by natural mutation or mutagenic breeding is very low. We will use gene editing technology to edit and precisely engineer genes conserved in plants related to broad-spectrum disease resistance and stress tolerance to rapidly improve disease resistance and environmental adaptation in wheat.