ARS | Publication request: ALIEN GENE TRANSFER INTO DURUM WHEAT: CYTOLOGICAL AND MOLECULAR CHARACTERIZATION OF SCAB-RESISTANT HYBRID DERIVATIVES.

Submitted to: Agronomy Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: September 1, 1999
Publication Date: October 15, 1999
Citation: Jauhar, P.P., Peterson, T.S. 1999. Alien gene transfer into durum wheat: cytological and molecular characterization of scab-resistant hybrid derivatives. Agronomy Abstracts, p. 83.

Technical Abstract: Hybridization with perennial wild grasses is helpful in transferring desirable traits into durum wheat. Scab or Fusarium Head Blight (FHB) is a devastating disease of wheat. We have found that two wild relatives of wheat the tetraploid wheatgrass, Thinopyrum junceiforme, and diploid wheatgrass, Lophopyrum elongatum are excellent sources of resistance to FHB. To transfer this resistance to durum wheat, we crossed two cultivars, Lloyd and Langdon, with the wild grasses and produced male-sterile hybrids. By backcrossing these hybrids (as female parents) to the durum parent, we have produced several fertile hybrid derivatives with the full complement of durum wheat plus a few chromosomes or chromosome segments of the junceiforme or elongatum parent. Genomic in situ hybridization showed the integration of alien chromatin into the durum genome. Some of the Lloyd-junceiforme and Langdon-elongatum derivatives showed high resistance to FHB. Whereas most advanced generations are segregating for resistance, a few seem to have stabilized.