How do disease QTLs affect the development of northern leaf blight in maize?
Walsh, Ellie1; Longfellow, Joy1; Chung, Chia-Lin1; Poland, Jesse2; Nelson, Rebecca1,2 1 303G Plant Science Bldg., Dept. of Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA 14853 2 303G Plant Science Bldg., Dept. of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA 14853 Our general objective is to understand how disease resistance QTLs affect fungal pathogenesis in maize. Studies on host-pathogen interactions in a range of pathosystems have revealed an array of mechanisms by which plants reduce the efficiency of pathogenesis. With the aim of relating specific loci with effects on specific stages of fungal development, we have mapped QTL for resistance to northern leaf blight (NLB), caused by Exserohilum turcicum, using chromosomal segment substitution lines (CSSLs) derived from B73/Tx303. We identified QTLs for NLB resistance using macroscopic disease components, including incubation period (IP), lesion expansion, and diseased leaf area (DLA
