Proteomics of bulked rachides combined with documented QTLs uncovers genotype non-specific players of the Fusarium head blight responses in wheat.

Fusarium head blight (FHB) is a destructive disease of wheat that reduces yield and grain quality. High-throughput proteomic techniques have been used to identify a wide range of candidate proteins involved in host-resistance. The majority of the published works on the proteomics of the wheat response to Fusarium graminearum infection are case-specific. In the current study, a high-throughput quantitative label-free strategy was employed on bulked rachides of F. graminearum-infected wheat collected from multiple genotypes. Differentially accumulated proteins among the following four pools were identified: RM (mock-inoculated FHB-resistant accessions), SM (mock-inoculated FHB-susceptible accessions), RFg (F. graminearum-inoculated FHB-resistant accessions), and SFg (F. graminearum-inoculated FHB-susceptible accessions). Four pairs of comparisons were made: RFg vs. RM, SFg vs. SM, RM vs. SM and RFg vs. SFg. Proteins were projected onto the consensus intervals of previously reported QTL in the FHB-resistant pool by blasting against the Chinese Spring reference sequences. In addition to proteins previously reported in the host response to Fusarium species, new candidates have emerged in association with resistance or susceptibility, including a group 3 late embryogenesis abundant (G3LEA) as a resistance-related protein and a purple acid phosphatase (PAP) as a susceptibility protein. The protein atlas presented here provides new perspectives on the interaction between F. graminearum and wheat.