Wheat and maize are the most important and profitable crops in Europe. They are grown with high proportions in crop rotations, often in no-till systems to reduce production costs and soil erosion. This practice favours infections by Fusarium head blight (FHB, Fusarium graminearum) and Septoria leaf blotch (STB, Septoria tritici) in wheat, and Fusarium ear rot (FER, F. graminearum, F. verticillioides) in maize. For comprehensively understanding these three pathosystems the diversity within host and pathogen populations and their interaction should be analysed as well as the responsible genome regions by QTL mapping, and candidate genes by expression profiling should be searched. An ultimate goal is to reveal broad-spectrum resistance QTL and common gene expression data for resistance to FHB and STB in wheat and FER in maize by meta-analysis. QTL with the highest effects can directly be applied in practical breeding programs and are the starting point for further functional genome analysis.
