QTL mapping for Fusarium ear rot and fumonisin contamination resistance in two populations of maize. Crop Sci

eratum (Matsushima) Nirenberg (teleomorph: G. intermedia) are fungal pathogens of maize (Zea mays L.) that cause ear rot and con-taminate grain with fumonisins, mycotoxins that can harm animals and humans. The objective of this study was to identify quantitative trait loci (QTL) for resistance to Fusarium ear rot and fumonisin contami-nation in twomaize populations, comprised of 213 BC1F1:2 families from the first backcross of GE440 to FR1064 (GEFR) and 143 recombinant inbred lines from the cross of NC300 to B104 (NCB). QTL mapping was used to study the genetic relationships between resistances to ear rot and fumonisin contamination and to investigate consistency of QTL across populations. In theGEFRpopulation, sevenQTL explained 47% of the phenotypic variation for mean ear rot resistance and nine QTL with one epistatic interaction explained 67 % of the variation for mean fumonisin concentration. In the NCB population, five QTL explained 31 % of the phenotypic variation for mean ear rot resistance and si