Fusarium head blight (FHB) is a destructive disease of wheat all over the world. FHB causes high economic losses for durum wheat because of the lack of resistance sources. Initially, sixty-eight Syrian landraces were tested in field conditions after inoculation to discriminate the most resistant and environmentally stable landraces. Further tests across a total of four environments revealed four landraces with a low mean FHB rating (19-25%) compared to common German durum varieties (56-60%) and an environmentally stable resistance. They are considered as promising resistance sources to FHB for introgression in the adapted durum wheat gene pool.Fusarium head blight (FHB) caused by Fusarium graminearum Schwabe (perfect stage: Gibberella zeae (Schw.) Petch) and other Fusarium species is a common disease in all cereals including maize. Common wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is already more susceptible and provides higher contents of the mycotoxin deoxynivalenol than triticale and rye (Miedaner and Reinbrecht 2001), but durum wheat (Triticum turgidum L. var. durum) is even more sensitive (McMullen et al. 1997, Stack et al. 2003. Deployment of FHB-resistant cultivars is considered the most effective and cost-efficient strategy to combat this disease (Miedaner 1997). Sources of effective FHB resistance have not been found in adapted durum wheat (Chen et al. 2007). No resistant durum varieties are currently available (Buerstmayr et al. 2009). Attempts to transfer the highly effective resistance loci on chromosomes 5A and 3BS from the hexaploid Chinese landrace ÔSumaiÕ 3 to durum wheat had limited success only (Kumar et al. 2007; F. Lacoudre and L. Gervais, personal communications). Resistance to FHB in tetraploid wheat has been extensively evaluated in wild emmer wheat T. turgidum L. var. dicoccoides (AABB, 2n = 4· = 28). Buerstmayr et al. (2003) tested 151 accessions from different geographical areas in Israel and Turkey and identified eight accessions with moderate FHB resistance. Similarly, Oliver et al. (2008) tested 376 accessions of five subspecies of T. turgidum and found that 16 T. turgidum subsp. carthlicum and four T. turgidum subsp. dicoccum consistently exhibited resistance or moderate resistance to FHB that was much better than observed in actual durum varieties. Four major QTL for FHB in tetraploid wheat were identified so far on chromosomes 3A (Qfhs.ndsu-3AS, Otto et al. 2002), 7A (Qfhs.fcu-7AL; Kumar et al. 2007), 6BS and 2BL (Somers et al. 2006) with the three former QTL derived from wild relatives of durum wheat or emmer. Results of Somers et al. (2006) showed that FHB resistance QTL from wild relatives can be successfully transferred to adapted durum wheat. However, breeding would be much more effective if sources of FHB resistance were found in germplasm of cultivated durum wheat. It might be promising to search such sources in regions where cultivated wheat evolutionary developed, i.e. in the Fertile Crescent. Our objective aimed (i) to analyse Syrian landraces of durum wheat for their FHB resistance b...