'Plant Breeding: Sustaining the Future' Abstracts of the XVIth EUCARPIA Congress, Edinburgh, Scotland, 10-14 September 2001 A DYNAMIC CONCEPT FOR  FUSARIUM HEAD BLIGHT MEASUREMENTS IN WHEAT P. RUCKENBAUER, M. LEMMENS University Institute of Agrobiotechnology (IFA), A-3430 Tulln, Austria

Fusarium Head Blight (FHB) or scab is a fungal disease of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and other small grain cereals with severe consequences for yield performance and quality traits. Recently severe outbreaks have been reported worldwide. Genetic resistance is the most trustworthy and cost effective method for FHB control. Since 1992, basic research to improve the overall resistance in bread wheat breeding material against this fungal disease is performed at the IFA Tulln. Despite a high genotypic variance, genotype x environment interactions play an important role in the wheat/FHB pathosystems. The actual mechanisms inducing these interactions remain obscure. In this contribution the results of field trials over 65 environments with 25 wheat genotypes of various resistance levels are pooled into a new dynamic concept of genotype resistance description. This leads to a better understanding of the wheat/ FHB pathosystem and to a further improvement of resistance breeding strategies.