U. S. W H E A T & B A R L E Y S C A B I N I T I A T I V E

Fusarium Focus

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2019 FHB Forum: Science Shines

Nearly 200 scientists, graduate stu-dents, growers and industry representa-tives from the U.S. and foreign coun-tries attended the 2019 NationalFusarium Head Blight Forum in earlyDecember. The 22nd FHB Forum washeld at the Hyatt Regency Milwaukee.

The event featured stakeholder andscientific invited speaker presentations,plus focused group discussions andsocial events for attendee interaction.Numerous research posters were on dis-play as well, with primary authors pre-sent to discuss their research. For thesixth year, postdoctoral scientists andgraduate students participated in“Flash & Dash” sessions in which theyprovided mini-oral presentations onposters they had at the Forum.

Organized/hosted by the U.S. Wheat& Barley Scab Initiative (USWBSI), theannual FHB Forum provides a centralvenue for reports on the latest researchon Fusarium Head Blight (scab) anddeoxynivalenol (DON), the mycotoxinproduced by scab infection in grains.

The 2020 National Fusarium HeadBlight Forum takes place on December

6-8 at the Hilton Cincinnati NetherlandPlaza in Cincinnati, Ohio.

The following pages contain photosand talk summaries from several of theinvited speaker presentations at the2019 Forum. PDF copies of the follow-ing presentations are posted on theUSWBSI website — scabusa.org — asare the full Forum Proceedings:

• Impact of Fusarium Head BlightResistance on Wheat VarietyRegistration in Canada / SantoshKumar, Agriculture and Agri-FoodCanada, Brandon, Manitoba, Canada.

• Updated Insights on Efficacy andTiming of Fungicides from Multi-StateEfforts / Pierce Paul, The Ohio StateUniversity, Wooster, Ohio.

• Introduction and Overview ofEach Lab and Their Work on Scab /Guihua Bai, Gina Brown-Guedira,Jason Fiedler and Deven See, USDA-ARS Genotyping Labs, Manhattan,Kan., Raleigh, N.C., Fargo, N.D., andPullman, Wash, respectfully.

• Targeting PathogenicityMechanisms to Promote FHB-Resistancein Wheat / Jyoti Shah, University of

North Texas, Denton, Texas.• A Grower's Perspective on Scab

from Northwest North Dakota / DustinJohnsrud, Epping, N.D.

• Steps for Approving & ValidatingCommercial Mycotoxin Test Kits / AjitGhosh, USDA-AMS, Kansas City, Mo.

• Can Agronomic Practices ReduceDON? / Carrie Knott, University ofKentucky, Princeton, Ky.

• Effects of Head Morphology andPhenology on Fusarium InfectionProcesses and Implications for DiseaseManagement in Barley / RobertBrueggeman, Washington StateUniversity, Pullman, Wash.

• Application of Model Ensembles tothe Prediction of Fusarium Head Blight/ Erick DeWolf, Kansas StateUniversity, Manhattan, Kan.

• Color and Spectral Imaging forHigh-throughput Field FHB Detectionand Lab DON Assessment / Ce Yang,University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minn.

• Challenges and Efforts toMaintain Winter Barley as a ViableCrop in the Eastern U.S. / Carl Griffey,Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va. v

Volume 20 Issue 1 Winter/Spring 2020

The 2019 National FHB Forum’sfirst speaker was Santosh Kumar,Brandon, Manitoba-based spring wheatbreeder with Agriculture and Agri-FoodCanada (AAFC). Kumar’s topic was the“Impact of Fusarium Head BlightResistance onWheat VarietyRegistration inWestern Canada.” Canada’s 2019production of springwheat totaled about32 million metrictons, Kumar said,with about half thatamount ending up exported (as ofOctober). Canada is the world’s secondleading exporter of wheat, behindRussia, at about 14% of the global total. Canada Western Red Spring(CWRS) is by far the largest category ofwheat grown in Canada. AAFC’s mainbreeding programs for CWRS are insouthwestern Manitoba (Brandon),Saskatchewan (Swift Current) andnorthern Alberta (Beaverlodge). Allthree AAFC programs focus on thedevelopment of CWRS quality wheat.Within the CWRS wheat class, theBrandon program focuses on diseaseresistance; Swift Current’s programfocuses on abiotic stresses, and theBeaverlodge program concentrates onearly maturing wheat varieties. Registration of new varietal releasesin Canada is heavily influenced by therecommendations of the Prairie GrainDevelopment Committee (PGDC), aconsortium of federal and provincialagriculture officials, along with univer-sity and co-op/private company stake-holders. Breeders submit extensiveagronomic performance, grain/flourquality and disease data to the commit-

tee for each planned release — includ-ing, of course, resistance to diseasessuch as Fusarium Head Blight.Quality traits such as milling, doughstrength and baking attributes are inte-gral to whether a line is recommendedfor release. Lines must be licensed tobe registered. The Agriculture and Agri-FoodCanada FHB nursery at Brandon con-sists of 30 acres in a three-year rotationunder irrigation, with about 40,000rows grown out in the 2019 season.This nursery evaluates breedinggermplasm for FHB resistance. Theother two nurseries at Morden andCarman, Manitoba, generate FHB rat-ings for the registration trials as man-dated by the PGDC. The protocol for evaluating reactionto Fusarium Head Blight using macro-conidia inoculum goes as follows: • Identify rows at 50% anthesis.Inoculate plants with 50 ml spore sus-pension per meter of row when 50% ofthe heads are in anthesis. Inoculate thesame rows two to three days later toinfect later tillers.

• The cultivars ‘AC Vista’, ‘CDCTeal’ and ‘AC Morse’ are used as sus-ceptible checks. ‘AC Cora’ and ‘5602HR’ are used as intermediate checks,‘FHB 37’ as a moderately resistant, and‘AAC Tenacious’ as a resistant check. • Check varieties are planted at reg-ular intervals throughout the nursery,and interpretation of disease ratings(VRI) have to take conditions and checkreactions into account. The checksplanted at regular intervals allow thepathologists to distinguish not only theactual disease ratings but also diseaseescapes, as a low score may meanescape rather than resistance, Kumarnoted. “It is therefore very difficult tomake an arbitrary statement about lev-els of disease being rated as MS or MR,etc.” • The FHB reaction (R, MR, I, MS,S) is determined relative to the checklines’ reactions and will change fromyear to year. “Fusarium is a major challenge forwheat breeders in Canada,” Kumaraffirmed. But, he added, progress isdefinitely being made, with more mod-erately resistant lines being supportedby the Prairie Grain DevelopmentCommittee’s disease evaluation team inthe past two to three years, comparedto prior years. v

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— 2019 FHB Forum —Impact of FHB Resistance on Wheat

Variety Registration in Western Canada

Left: Ruth Dill-Macky and DoyleLentz, shown hereat the 2019 NationalFHB Forum, serveas the co-chairs ofthe U.S. Wheat &Barley ScabInitiative. Dill-Mackyis a research plantpathologist with theUniversity ofMinnesota, St. Paul.Lentz is a smallgrains producerfrom Rolla, N.D.

Santosh Kumar

“Can Agronomic Practices ReduceDON?” That was the question/title leadingoff Carrie Knott’s presentation at the2019 National FHB Forum. Knott is thegrains cropsextension agrono-mist with theUniversity ofKentucky. Essentially allof Kentucky’s softred winter wheatfollows corn in therotation, with themajority of wheatdrilled into either no-till or minimallytilled corn residue. Along with full-sea-son corn, there is also a lot of double-cropped wheat/soybeans in the state. Current UK recommendations formanaging FHB in wheat call for theplanting of moderately resistant culti-

vars, along with the application of anappropriate fungicide at the Feekes10.5.1 stage of growth. One limitationof the fungicide timing, however, is thepotential for significant differences ingrowth stage development within thesame wheat field due to areas withinthe field that have heavy corn residuethat can impact wheat emergence anddevelopment. The objectives of the research byKnott and her UK colleagues acrossthree years (2016-18) were to determinewhether certain management practicescan reduce variability in wheat flower-ing (i.e., increase uniformity across thefield) and result in lower DON at sea-son’s end. Specifically, they looked at(1) in-furrow phosphorus application,(2) an increased seeding rate, and (3)harvest timing, i.e., higher vs. lowermoisture percentages. One testing environment was a

mist-irrigated Fusarium Head Blightnursery inoculated with Fusarium-infested corn; the second environmentwas a non-inoculated control. Thetreatments included two seeding rates(377 and 603 pure live seed per m-2;two cultivars — one with moderateresistance to FHB and the other withmoderate susceptibility; and two in-fur-row phosphorus treatments (zero and47 kg P2O5). The UK researchers measuredFusarium incidence, severity and indexfor all three years, along withFusarium-damaged kernels (FDK),DON contamination, grain yield andtest weight. They found that the inves-tigated management practices did notreduce time to heading, beginning flow-ering or full flowering. Also, in-furrowphosphorus and seeding did not reduceFHB Index, FDK or DON. However,the phosphorous and higher seedingrate did increase grain yield. “More-detailed analyses of all threeyears will provide a better understand-ing of whether additional agronomicpractices can reduce DON contamina-tion of wheat,” Knott reported. Theanalyses of the research is ongoing toallow a more-thorough investigation ofthe results prior to publication in scien-tific literature. v

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— 2019 FHB Forum —Can Agronomic Practices Reduce DON?

Left: The poster sessions on Monday andTuesday afternoons were, as always, apopular feature at the National FHBForum, with most authors present forquestions and discussion regarding theirresearch. Several postdoctoral scientistsand graduate students piqued interest intheir posters by presenting mini-talksabout their work during the ‘Flash & Dash’sessions leading up to each afternoon’sposter session.

Carrie Knott

“Targeting Pathogenicity Mechan-isms to Promote FHB Resistance inWheat” was the title of Jyoti Shah’spresentation at the 2019 National FHBForum. Shah is a professor of biologyand chair of the Department ofBiological Sciences at the University ofNorth Texas. Pathogenicity — the ability of apathogen to cause disease — is detem-

ined by fungal virulence mechanismsand host mechanisms that contribute tosusceptibility. As such, “pathogenicitymechanisms provide excellent targetsfor controlling disease caused byFusarium graminearum,” Shah noted. His FHB Forum discussion centeredon two approaches underway in collabo-ration with other USWBSI-funded labsto enhance plant resistance to F.

graminearum by targeting knock-downof genes associated with mechanismscontributing topathogenicity.“The firstinvolves enhanc-ing resistanceagainst F.graminearum byknock-down of aclass of plantlipoxygenases,which areinvolved in oxylipin (oxidized lipid)metabolism that contribute to suscepti-bility,” Shah explained. “The secondapproach involves the utilization ofhost-induced gene silencing (HIGS) toknock-down expression of fungal viru-lence genes.” HIGS comprises the expression ofdouble-stranded RNA (dsRNA) corre-sponding to fungal genes in the hostplant, Shah noted. When taken up bythe fungus, small RNA, resulting fromdsRNA processing, “are expected todestabilize accumulation of the corre-sponding fungal gene transcript toattenuate fungal pathogenicity.” Shah reported that his researchgroup has, to date, successfully utilizedHIGS in Arabidopsis and wheat to tar-get two secretory protein-encoding F.graminearum virulence genes toenhance resistance against Fusariumgraminearum. v

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— 2019 FHB Forum —Targeting Pathogenicity Mechanisms to Aid FHB Resistance

Dustin Johnsrud provided the2019 FHB Forum audience with anorthwestern North Dakota grower’sfirst-hand perspective on scab and itsimpact. Johnsrud, a board member ofthe NorthDakota WheatCommission, pro-duces severalsmall grain andbroadleaf cropson his farm nearEpping, includ-ing spring wheatand durum. WilliamsCounty, N.D., is typically semi-arid,with annual rainfall often totalingaround 11-12 inches. That changeddramatically in 2019, however, as late-season rains hiked the year’s rain totalto more than 20 inches. For those growers impacted by scab,the economic impact may be severe,Johnsrud affirmed. Elevator discountscan run $1.00/bu per point above 2.0ppm, with no bid for grain above 5.0ppm. On-farm cleaning of grain is anoption to reduce the scab level — but itrequires considerable time and expense.Johnsrud used the example of cleaning150,000 bushels of wheat at 5,000

bushels per day. That’s 30 days ofcleaning at an estimated cost of$1.00/bu. But, cleaning can bring down thescab levels from, say, 10 ppm to as lowas 2.0 ppm. Johnsrud then comparedthat to the value of a timely fungicideapplication during flowering at a cost ofabout $20 per acre. Johnsrud said he uses three primarymeans to assess the risk for scab in hisspring wheat and durum. Forecastmodels available through North DakotaState University are very valuable, hesaid. Also essential are crop advisorsand his own “on the ground” field scout-ing. The northwestern North Dakotaproducer also gave his Forum listenersa glimpse of how small grain farminghas changed in his area in recentdecades. The “old way,” he illustrated,was to use untreated seed, poor fertiliz-er management by todays standards,spray solely a herbicide — and to har-vest in early to mid-August. The “newway” incorporates forecast maps, preci-sion farming practices, variable-rateapplication of fertilizer and herbicides,multiple fungicide treatments if needed— and harvesting in late August toearly September. v

A North Dakota Producer’s Perspective

2019 National FHB Forum Photo Credits:

Dave HaneUSWBSI, Newark, Calif.

Dustin Johnsrud

Jyoti Shah

Pierce Paul, Wooster-based plantpathologist and extension state special-ist with The Ohio State University, pro-vided 2019 FHB Forum attendees with“Updated Insights on Efficacy andTiming of Fungicides from Multi-StateEfforts.” Paul began his presentation byreminding his audience of the basic com-ponents generally recommended bysmall grains specialists for optimummanagement of Fusarium Head Blight:genetic resistance; use of forecast mod-els; application of either Prosaro orCaramba fungicides at anthesis; tillage;and crop rotation. When it comes tofungicide applications, however, theiroptimal timing may not be possible dueto adverse weather delaying treatment.Also, lack of flowering uniformity acrossa field and the inability to adequatelyidentify anthesis may further down-grade a fungicide’s field-wide efficacy. Among the questions commonlyposed by researchers, growers and otherstakeholders, Paul observed, are these: • How effective are pre- and post-anthesis (early and late) fungicide appli-cations on FHB Index, DON, grain yieldand test weight? • Is efficacy influenced by fungicide(i.e., Prosaro vs. Caramba)? • Is efficacy influenced by wheattype/region (e.g., spring vs. winterwheat)? • Is fungicide efficacy influenced bycultivar resistance (the other “primaryhalf” of the current FHB integratedmanagement equation)? Paul then summarized data from themulti-state uniform fungicide trials,which encompass 27 different environ-ments. Along with non-treated checks,the treatment regimen he addressedincluded Caramba and Prosaro early, atanthesis and late. The best control of FHB with both

fungicides was when applied at anthe-sis, followed by two to six days afterearly anthesis (Feekes 10.5.1). For DON,the highest con-trol came withthe two-to six-days after earlyanthesis treat-ment, followedclosely by the “atearly anthesis”timing. For bothFHB and DON,the lowest levelof control came with the pre-anthesistreatment timing, although that timingdid provide significant control comparedto non-treated checks. In terms of FHB control with culti-vars of varying levels of resistance, theuniform fungicide trials have shown, notsurprisingly, that control is highest withmoderately resistant cultivars. Not farbehind, however, is control with moder-ately susceptible + fungicide. The sus-ceptible + fungicide category lags by asignificant margin. In all three cultivarscenarios, however, the timing pattern issimilar: best at “two days after earlyanthesis,” with the “at early anthesis”and “four days after early anthesis” tim-ings fairly equivalent. “Six days after

early anthesis” lagged, but not by a bigmargin. DON levels have shown a similarpattern, with the “at early anthesis” fun-gicide timing lagging slightly in its effi-cacy compared to the other timings. Paul also reported on the FHB andDON management efficacy of Miravis®Ace, the new fungicide from Syngenta.The uniform trials, he noted, haveshown Miravis to be just as effectiveagainst FHB and DON as Caramba orProsaro when applied at early anthesis.Efficacy of Miravis Ace was comparablebetween early anthesis and later appli-cations, but was less consistent in earlyheading applications. Finally, a two-treatment program —early anthesis application of Miravis Acefollowed by an application of Caramba,Prosaro or Folicur four to six days later— resulted in the greatest reduction inDON among the regimens tested acrossthe multi-state uniform trials. “As was the case with Prosaro andCaramba, combining an early anthesisapplication of Miravis Ace with geneticresistance resulted in lower FHB andDON than did resistance or fungicideapplication alone or the combination ofan early heading application with resist-ance,” Paul concluded. v

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— 2019 FHB Forum —Efficacy & Timing of Fungicides: Multi-State Trials Update

Pierce Paul

Forum participants gather for the traditional Sunday evening dinner and program.

Carl Griffey, longtime VirginiaTech wheat and barley breeder, updat-ed the 2019 FHB Forum audience on“Challenges and Efforts to MaintainWinter Barley as a Viable Crop in theEastern U.S.” Virginia’s barley acreage has trend-ed downward for decades, with onlyabout 30,000 acres planted in 2018 and35,000 in 2019. The decline has beenespecially dramatic during the periodsince Fusarium Head Blight firstbecame problematic in the state (early2000s). Hybridization, breeding, geneticsand development of winter barley vari-eties has been conducted for more than75 years at Virginia Tech. From theearly 1960s onward, emphasis wasplaced on the development of awnlessand apically awned varieties, Griffeysaid, “due to the difficulty farmers had

threshing long-awned varieties underthe humid conditions in the mid-Atlantic region.”However, whilesuch varietieswere — and con-tinue to be —preferred for for-age production,“they producegrain havinglower testweights and lessplump kernels, which are not ideal foreither feed or malt uses.” During the past three decades,under Griffey’s direction, the VirginiaTech barley program has transitionedaway from awnless six-rowed feed bar-ley varieties and currently is focusedprimarily on two-rowed malt barleytypes. That emphasis has led to barley

releases with superior quality grain forboth domestic and export markets. Also, interest in improving both thequality and nutritional value of barleyfor use in large local swine and poultryindustries — and the onset of localinterest in ethanol production — led tothe development of hulless barley vari-eties with significantly higher starchand lower fiber compared to traditionalvarieties. “Doyce” was the first hullessvariety released by Virginia Tech (in2003). Several more have beenreleased since then, including thenewest one, “VA15H-73,” a two-rowedhulless variety in 2020. VA15H-73 haslower FHB Index, FDK, ISK Index andDON values than the moderately resist-ant cultivar “Eve,” released in 2007. One Virginia Tech-developed barleyvariety, “Thoroughbred” (released in2003), was found to have deciduousawns, a trait contributing to improve-ment in grain quality and plumpness.In response to interest from a Virginiadistillery, Thoroughbred debuted asVirginia Tech’s first malt barley vari-ety. “Since then, Thoroughbred alsohas been used for malting and produc-tion of craft beers,” Griffey reported. With the ongoing declining demandfor winter barley for principle use inthe feed and fuel ethanol industries,Virginia Tech’s barley program concen-trates on developing two-rowed wintermalt barley varieties. The first two areslated for release in 2020. Such vari-eties “must meet significantly higherquality standards than traditional feedbarley varieties,” Griffey pointed out,including resistance to FHB and lowDON accumulation levels. v

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Left: Engaging conversation amongmeeting participants before, in-betweenand after the general sessions is a welcome and essential facet of anyresearch gathering — including at theannual National Fusarium Head BlightForum.

— 2019 FHB Forum —Maintaining Winter Barley in Eastern U.S.

Carl Griffey

One highlight of the 2019 NationalFHB Forum’s general sessions was apanel discussion focusing on the USDA-ARS small grains genotyping labs: theirmission and their function. Participating on the panel were theleaders of these four regional labs:Jason Fiedler, North Central in Fargo,N.D.; Gina Brown-Guedira, East atRaleigh, N.C.; Deven See, West atPullman, Wash., and Guihua Bai,Central in Manhattan, Kan. Each lab works with small grainsbreeders from multiple states withintheir respective regions. The labs relystrongly upon support from stakeholderentities such as the U.S. Wheat &Barley Scab Initiative. The core mission of these genotypinglabs boils down to four focus areas: (1)developing new molecular marker tech-nologies; (2) implementing effectivestrategies for their application in thebreeding of small grains; (3) providingbreeders with access to state-of-the-artmolecular technologies, and (4) helpingto maximize the efficiency of smallgrains breeding programs by speedingup the process of new cultivar release. Plant breeders, both public and pri-vate, annually submit thousands ofsamples from their research programsto these labs. The labs then employtheir sophisticated gene marker technol-ogy to analyze the samples for traits ofinterest and to interpret the generateddata. This information, back in thehands of the breeders, is of great valueas they focus on incorporating thedesired trait(s) into their breeding popu-lations much more quickly than theycould have otherwise. Fiedler said that along with him, theFargo lab employs two full-time techni-cians, one post-doc position and twopart-time undergraduates. A Cat4 sci-entist hopefully will be added this year.

The lab’s equipment includes LHRobotics for DNA extraction and nor-malization (ranging from nearly 400 upto about 770 lines per day), Proflex x 6(capable of 4,600 data points daily), aniScan for wheat, barley and oat (192lines per day), and a NextSeq500 forsequencing. Brown-Guedira explained that theRaleigh lab’s work with marker-assistedselection for FHB resistance includestwo to three breeder projects annually(Fhb1 and other FHB QTL); QTL pyra-miding for doubled-haploid production;and introgression into soft red winterwheat of PI 277012 resistance. Thehaplotyping inbred material portion ofthe Raleigh lab’s work includes markerson uniform scab screening nurseries,FHB marker genotyping of eastern win-ter wheat nurseries, and three to fourbreeder projects per year. Finally, thelab performs genome-wide markeranalyses, including the prediction oflines in current-year nurseries as well

as about 5,000 yet-untested lines. Along with scientific lead Deven See,the Pullman genotyping lab has onepost-doc and three technicians. FHBphenotyping activities cover a springwheat breeding program, varietal test-ing program and a plant pathologyresearch farm. Wheat genotyping work at Pullmanencompasses incorporating Fhb1 intoamplicon sequencing platform, Fhb1introgression into both the winterwheat and spring wheat programs,obtaining genotypes for the variety test-ing program — and, exome capture onselected breeding lines and the varietytesting program. With barley, the Pullman ARS labcollaborates with Oregon StateUniversity’s doubled-haploid productionprogram to genotype and validate intro-gression in a DH production systemusing amplicon sequencing.

— 2019 FHB Forum —USDA-ARS Small Grains Genotyping Labs: Mission & Function

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— Continued on Next Page —

Research leaders from the four ARS regional small grains genotyping laboratoriesanswered audience questions following their panel discusson at the 2019 Forum.Shown, left to right, are: Jason Fiedler, Fargo, N.D.; Gina Brown-Guedira, Raleigh,N .C.; Deven See, Pullman, Wash., and Guihua Bai, Manhattan, Kan. The U.S.Wheat & Barley Scab Initiative is a prominent supporter of the labs’ work.

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— 2019 FHB Forum —

• Fulcher, M.R., J.P. Garcia, K.C.M.Damann, and G.C. Bergstrom. 2019.Variable interactions between non-cerealgrasses and Fusarium graminearum. Can.J. Phytopathol.41: 450-456.https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07060661.2019.1605540

• Fulcher, M.R., J.B. Winans, M. Quan,E.D. Oladipo, and G.C. Bergstrom. 2019.Population genetics of Fusarium gramin-earum at the interface of wheat and wildgrass communities in New York.Phytopathology 109: 2124-2131.

• https://apsjournals.apsnet.org/doi/10.1094/ PHYTO-05-19-0169-R

Recent Peer-ReviewedScab-Related Publications

Above: Breakout meetings were held for several grain class categories: hard win-ter wheat, barley, soft winter wheat and spring wheat/durum. The meetings werepreceded and followed by a VDHR-MGMT joint session of breeders and patholo-gists. Part of the barley breakout group, facilitated by Alyssa Collins (Penn State)and Kevin Smith (University of Minnesota) is pictured above.

Below: Four research area breakout meetings also took place at the 2019 Forum,including FHB Management (MGMT), Food Safety & Toxicology (FST), GeneDiscovery & Engineering Resistance (GDER) and Pathogen Biology & Genetics(PBG). The individuals pictured here were part of the GDER session chaired bySteve Scofield (USDA-ARS).

The Manhattan lab has three ARSemployees (including Bai) and severalKansas State University staff. The labserves hard winter wheat breeding pro-grams in the Great Plains, genotypingthe Regional Performance Nursery andother elite breeding lines, with morethan 100 markers annually. It gener-ates more than 2,000 samples of GBSdata for breeders/ geneticists to conductQTL mapping and genomic selection. Italso converts other types of markers tohigh-throughput SNP markers. The Manhattan genotyping lab’sresearch focuses on the identification ofQTLs and linked markers for yield com-ponents and resistance to FHB, otherkey wheat diseases and insects, andpreharvest sprouting. It also performsfine mapping for FHB and these factors. Additional research includes marker-assisted transfer of Fhb1 and otherexotic genes to adapted cultivars, char-acterization of gene functions, and thedevelopment of high-throughput geno-typing technology. v

ARS Genotyping Labs (Continued)

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— 2019 FHB Forum —

The 2nd annual open house forwomen in the USWBSI community wastook place at the 2019 National FHBForum in Milwaukee, Wisc., on Mondayevening, December 9. About 35 womenattendees at the Forum gathered at theevent, which was hosted by USWBSICo-Chair Dr. Ruth Dill-Macky. Theopen house commenced following theForum’s final poster session and earlyevening reception. The event was conceived to encour-age networking among women workingat different institutions and at differentpoints along their career path. It pro-vided women the opportunity to discuss

The U.S. Wheat & Barley ScabInitiative held its first poster competi-tion during the 2019 FHB Forum. Ofthe 67 posters that were presented dur-ing the two poster sessions, 31 partici-pated in the poster competition forgraduate students and post-docs. The competition was divided intotwo groups: graduate students (22 par-ticipants) and post-docs (9 participants).Twenty representatives from industryand universities judged the competitorsduring a two-day poster session for thisyear’s competition. Posters in the competition represent-ed the following five research cate-gories: FHB Management (3), FoodSafety and Toxicology (1), GeneDiscovery and Engineering Resistance(4), Pathogen Biology and Genetics (7),and Variety Development and HostPlant Resistance (16). v

USWBSI co-chairs Doyle Lentz (left) and Ruth Dill-Macky (right) flank the winnersof the poster competition at the 2019 National FHB Forum. They include, left toright: Bikash Poudel, North Dakota State University,1st Place Graduate Student;Marike Boenisch, University of Minnesota, 1st Place Post-Doctoral Researcher;Sean O’Mara, University of Minnesota, 2nd Place Graduate Student; Brian Ward,USDA-ARS North Carolina, 3rd Place Post-Doctoral Researcher; and Andrea Lugo-Torres, Cornell University, 3rd Place Graduate Student. Shown in the inset photo isZhao Jin, North Dakota State University, 2nd Place Post-Doctoral Researcher.

Winners of ForumPoster Competition

science and topics related to FusariumHead Blight of wheat and barley withother women and to socialize in aninformal setting. Participants enjoyedlight refreshments and much conversa-tion during the open house.

The Initiative is looking to supportsimilar informal networking events inassociation with future forums, particu-larly to support networking opportuni-ties for graduate students and postdoc-toral researchers. v

Women in AgGather at Forum

Kansas State University plantpathologist Erick DeWolf, a principaldeveloper and coordinator of theFusarium Head Blight Prediction Center(FHBPC), updated the 2019 Forumaudience on the application of modelensembles for the prediction of FHB. This predictive resource — in its11th year of operation as of 2020 — iscentered on weather-based models. It isused in 30 U.S. states where FHB anddeoxynivalenol (DON) contaminationconsistently reduce the quality and yieldof wheat and barley. The first generation of predictivemodels was developed with just 50observations (unique site-year varietycombinations), DeWolf noted. The dataset has been greatly expanded through

cooperation with the IntegratedManagement Coordinated Project (IM-CP), and nearly 1,000 cases are nowavailable for modeling. “Some of therecent additionsto the data setare noteworthy,”DeWolf stated,“because theyrepresent strik-ing deviationsfrom normal tem-perature andrainfall pat-terns.” Bringingthese observations into the availabledata set expands the range of conditionsused in model development and will leadto more-robust predictions in an era ofclimate change, he noted. The FHB Prediction Center(http://www.wheatscab.psu.edu) current-ly has a rich set of logistic regressionmodels representing four generationalcycles of development, DeWolf told theForum audience. “Summary metricsreveal that the models have gotten bet-ter over the generations, reflecting abetter understanding of the relation-ships between weather and FHB epi-demics,” he observed. Despite such improvements, though,there are limitations as to how well anyone simple model captures the dynamicsof an epidemic. Combining multiplesimple models can yield a predictive per-formance that is superior to that of anyone individual component models. The technique of combining models isgenerally known as “ensembling” and iscommon in weather forecasting, as anexample. “Hierarchical cluster analysisof the FHB models indicates there are atleast four groups of models with respectto Brier score (a statistic comparingmodel performance),” DeWolf said.“Ensembles representing these groups ofmodels captured more information and

improved prediction accuracy relative tothe individual models.” DeWolf also gave his audience a pre-view of FHB forecasting tool updates for2020. The updates include clean designfeatures, simplified navigation controls,improved browser compatibility and alsoscales well to mobile devices. The KSU plant pathologist providedseveral take-away points in summariz-ing his Forum presentation: • There is tremendous value in thecooperative efforts supported by the U.S.Wheat & Barley Scab Initiative. Usersof the predictive tools indicate the mod-els help them save millions of dollars byavoiding potential disease loss andspending money on unneeded farminputs. • Recent observations are helpingaccount for variabilities in our climateand enabling expansion into new geo-graphic areas. • Progress in modeling FHB hasyielded a suite of potentially useful pre-dictive models. • The modeling effort is undergoinga paradigm shift that may well improveperformance of the forecasting system. • Web-based tools also are undergo-ing renovations. “In time, such ensemble approachesshould improve the predictions of FHBepidemics in the U.S. delivered via theFusarium Head Blight PredictionCenter,” DeWolf concluded. v

Fusarium Focus is an online newsletterpublished periodically by the U.S. Wheat &Barley Scab Initiative. The USWBSI is anational multi-disciplinary and multi-institu-tional research system whose goal is todevelop as quickly as possible effectivecontrol measures that minimize the threat ofFusarium Head Blight (scab), including theproduction of mycotoxins, for producers,processors and consumers of wheat andbarley. Contact information is as follows:

U.S. Wheat & Barley Scab InitiativeNetworking & Facilitation Office

1066 Bogue St., PSSBEast Lansing, MI 48824 Phone — (517) 353-0201Email — nfo@scabusa.org

Website — https://scabusa.orgFusarium Focus is produced by LilleboeCommunications, 43005 Hwy. 59, PelicanRapids, MN 56572. Phone: (701) 238-2393.

Email: lillcomm@yahoo.com

FusariumFocus

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— 2019 FHB Forum —Application of Model Ensembles to the Prediction of FHB

2020 NationalFHB ForumDecember 6-8Hilton CincinnatiNetherland PlazaCincinnati, Ohio

Erick DeWolf