Crown rot is an important disease of wheat in Australia. Development of resistant varieties has been hampered by the lack of reliable, repeatable, and robust phenotyping methods suitable of use in commercial breeding programs. Furthermore, the genetic basis of resistance is complex with multiple QTLs contributing varying degrees of effective resistance.

This investment will develop robust phenotyping methods for crown rot resistance that are suitable for use in commercial breeding programs. The project will utilise those phenotyping methods to confirm the validity of current resistance QTLs and determine their effect in multiple genetic backgrounds. This project will also aim to refine the current loosely linked flanking markers for four known resistance QTLs to allow their effective use in commercial breeding programs.