Objective:
(1) To study the morphological and physiological characteristics of barley that are associated with different fungicide deposition patterns and reduced effectiveness of fungicidies. (2) a) To screen elite 2-row and 6-row barley germplasm for resistance to Fusarium head blight (FHB) in uniform screening nurseries in North Dakota and China; b) To co-ordinate and carryout distribution of germplasm between collaborating groups in North Dakota, Minnesota, Canada, and Mexico so that germplasm can be tested in trials across North American; and c)To receive the reports of the collaborating groups, collate, and interpret them and make them freely available to all interested individuals. (3)To conduct field trials at the Langdon Research Extension Center of existing transgenic lines from Dr. L. Dahleen (USDA-ARS-Fargo, ND); to determine their resistance to infection by Fusarium head blight and their ability to resist accumulation of DON. (4) To investigate the effect of environmental conditions on FHB severity and DON accumulation in barley and to provide data to develop risk models that can be added as a component of the current wheat risk model. (5) To accelerate screening unique barley germplasm for new resistance alleles to Fusarium head blight (FHB) and to facilitate their rapid transfer into adapted breeding germplasm.

Approach:
(1) Fungicides are less effective in controlling FHB and DON accumulation on barley than on other small grains. Awn length, awn roughness, spike angle and fungicide translocation in different barley head tissues will be studied. (2) Comparison will be made between resistant and susceptible checks and 48 lines of Conlon transformed with Glu; Chi+FvGlu; Chi+tlp and 24 lines of Conlon BC transformed with multiple pairs of the above genes. (3) Screenings will be done in nurseries in Fargo and Kangdon in North Dakota and Hangzhou in China. Data on FHB reaction and DON accumulation will be collected to identify lines with improved resistance compared to the currently grown varieties in the Midwest of the U.S. Previous nurseries conducted by the NDSU barley breeders and the Minnesota State University Breeders have shown that the most resistant lines in China were also the most resistant in the Midwest. By establishing winter nurseries in China we can obtain two field evaluations in the one year which will redue the time needed to identify new sources of resistance.