Hadjout S., Chéreau S., Atanasova-Pénichon V., Marchegay G., Mekliche L, Boureghda H., Barreau C., Touati-Hattab S., Bouznad Z., Richard-Forget F. (2017). Phenotypic and biochemical characterization of new advanced durum wheat breeding lines from Algeria that show resistance to Fusarium head blight and to mycotoxin accumulation. Journal of Plant Pathology 99 (3), 671-680.

ABSTRACT
Durum wheat (Triticum turgidum L. var. durum) is a
crop highly susceptible to Fusarium head blight (FHB),
which results in yield losses and downgrades the quality of
grains mostly due to mycotoxin contamination. Although
breeding for resistance to FHB is one of the most promising
strategy for minimizing crop damage, the attempts to
obtain durum wheat resistant lines have been limited so
far. Two potentially interesting lines were recently delivered
by a breeding program based on crosses involving
cultivars from Europe and Syria. Using a field experiment
in Algeria with four different Fusarium culmorum strains
and a spray inoculation method, we demonstrated that the
two breeding lines were significantly less affected than a
set of commercial cultivars. The two breeding lines were
shown to exhibit a higher resistance to both initial fungal
infection and disease spread, and to mycotoxin contamination.
In addition, a detailed analysis of phenolic acid
composition of grains indicates significant differences in
p-coumaric acid between the FHB-resistant breeding lines
and the sensitive genotypes. Our results corroborate the
importance of cell wall composition in preventing the diffusion
of F. culmorum and therefore contributing to the
resistance of cereals to FHB.