Abstract
Fusarium head blight (FHB) is one of the most serious diseases of barley and causes significant loss in both yield and quality. Takeda and Heta (1989) evaluated FHB severities of 4,957 barley accessions by the 'cut-spike test'. Based on the resistance information, Takeda and Wu (1996) reported quantitative inheritance with high heritability in FHB resistance by diallel analysis among six accessions showing different levels of resistance. To detect quantitative trait loci (QTL) associated with FHB resistance, we developed recombinant inbred (RI) populations from the selected progeny of the diallele crosses and constructed linkage map on each RI population. Several QTLs were detected in the vicinity of spike morphology including row type and flowering type. We are developing near-isogenic lines with resistance QTL to reveal whether FHB resistance is derived from the pleiotropic effects or linkage effects of the morphological loci.
