Equivalence of the A genome of bread wheat and that of Triticum urartu

Abstract

Lines of Triticum aestivum Chinese Spring (2n = 6x = 42) which were ditelocentric or doubly ditelocentric, in turn, for the 14 chromosomes of the A and B genomes were pollinated by Triticum urartu (2n = 14). The behaviour of the marked telocentric chromosomes was scored in the 14 distinct hybrids obtained from these pollinations. In 6 of the hybrids in which different A genome chromosomes were marked by telocentrics there were from 50 to 80% of the pollen mother cells in which the telocentrics were paired. In the seven hybrids in which different B genome chromosomes were marked the telocentrics were never paired. It was concluded that the genome of T. urartu matched very closely the A genome of hexaploid wheat and that it did not correspond, as had been proposed by Johnson, to the B genome. The pairing behaviour of the 14 T. aestivum × T. urartu hybrids was compared with earlier results obtained from hybrids between T. aestivum and T. boeoticum. It was proposed that the higher trivalent frequencies seen in the T. boeoticum hybrids could be due to homoeologous pairing and that the genotype of T. boeoticum has the capacity partly to suppress the activity of the Ph locus of chromosome 5B of wheat, as a result of which homoeologous pairing is normally prevented. © 1976, Cambridge University Press. All rights reserved.