ALBERT

Notes: Reliable and efficient methods of selection are important for improving disease resistance. Three methods of field assessment of the Septoria tritici blotch disease, caused by Mycosphaerella graminicola (Fückel) Schroeter, were compared to identify the most reliable for selecting resistant wheats, Triticum aestivttm L. Nine cultivars which differed in disease reaction to plant height and maturity, and their progenies from several generations were used. The methods consisted of scoring chlorotic and necrotic leaf area covered with pycnidia on the flag leaf and the leaf below the flag leaf (flag leaf-1) as percent of the total leaf area, on a plant-basis, and the percent necrosis visually estimated on a plot-basis. Plot data were greatly influenced by environmental changes leading to inconsistent genetic results. The flag leaf and flag leaf-1 methods provided the most precise consistent results. The use of the flag leaf-1 method is suggested for selection.

Notes: The influence of telomeric heterochromatin on early embryo and endosperm development and the production of aberrant endosperm nuclei were investigated using eight triticale (×Tritocmecale Wittmack) lines homozygous for the presence or absence ol blocks of telomeric heterochromatin from rye chromosome arms 1RL, 2RS, (SRS, and 7RL. The loss of heterochromatin from two chromosomes (6R, 7R) produced a significantly lower percentage of aberrant endosperm nuclei than did the loss from one chromosome (6R). Deletion of a third block had a significant additional effect in only one of four lines. The differences between lines for rales of embryo and endosperm development were significant even within a karyotypc, presumably because of genetic variation. The onset of cellularization of the endosperm tended to obscure the detection of aberrancy, and since it evidently occurred at different times in different lines, may have been largely responsible for the apparent reduction in aberrant nuclei in lines with less heterochromatin.

Notes: Five wheat-triticale doubled haploid (DH) lines— M08, V209, DH220-14-2, DH696-3-4 and M16 —derived from anther culture of F1s resulting from crosses involving hexaploid or octoploid triticale × hexaploid wheat, were characterized by cytological and biochemical markers. Cytological evidence from genomic in situ hybridization and C-banding indicated that DH lines M08 and V209 (2n= 42) each contained a pair of 1BL/1RS translocation chromosomes. DH220-14-2 (2n= 42) was also a translocated line with two pairs of chromosomes containing small fragments of rye. One of the translocation fragments carried the Sec-1R gene originating from the satellite region of 1RS; the origin of the other one remains unknown. DH696-3-4 (2n= 42) contained a 3D(3R) substitution. In M16 (2n= 44), three pairs of rye chromosomes, 3R, 4R and 6R, were present, 4R as an addition and 3D(3R) and 6D(6R) as substitutions. Biochemical, isozyme and storage protein markers confirmed the cytological conclusions. The advantages of transferring alien chromosomes or chromosome fragments into wheat and creating alien aneuploid lines by anther culture of hybrid F1s are discussed.

Notes: Septoria tritici blotch constitutes a major disease problem of wheat world-wide. To efficiently breed wheat for resistance to this disease, an understanding is required of the inheritance of resistance. Our objective was to study the quantitative inheritance of resistance under field conditions. A nine-parent diallel and a generation mean experiments were conducted at Toluca, México in 1986 and 1987, respectively, to investigate gene effects. General combining ability effects accounted for most of the variation although specific combining ability effects were detected in some crosses. Ias20*5/H567.71, Thornbird, and RPB709.71/Coc contributed the most to reduced disease severity. Reciprocal effects were detected in two of 36 crosses, where RPB709.71/Coc contributed additional reduced disease severity when used as female. The analysis of generation means confirmed results obtained from the diallel. Additive effects were also most important. Dominance effects and epistasis, mostly of the additive × additive type, were found in some crosses. Hence, substantial genetic progress for resistance can be expected among progeny from crosses with resistant parents. However, selection would be most effective if delayed to later generations because of dominance, and choice of the specific female parent may produce a higher level of resistance.

Notes: Among 16 dwarfing genes identified in wheat (Triticum aestiuvm L. em Thell.), four are known to be associated with insensitivity to the externally-supplied growth hormone gibberellin (GA). Rht1 and Rht2 (Reduced height 1 and 2, respectively) have been the most extensively used, because of their positive effect on yield. To increase the germplasm pool for dwarfism, a spring rye (Secale cereale) population (UC-90, CI-174) was selected because it contains high variability and any useful genes would benefit triticale and wheat as well. Seedlings of the CI-174 rye population were treated with 50 ppm of GA to identify any insensitive types. GA-insensitive and -sensitive seedlings were identified and, after three generations of selfing, GA-insensitive and -sensitive lines were fixed. Rye insensitive was crossed to a sensitive wheat and to rye and, reciprocally, insensitive wheat was crossed to sensitive rye. The results indicated that a GA-insensitivity dwarfism system similar to that originally found in wheat also operates in rye and appears to be under simple inheritance. Rye GA-insensitivity was expressed in triticale. Therefore, it is possible to transfer this new source of insensitivity and dwarfism into triticale and wheat.

Notes: Crosses between octoploid and hexaploid triticales have been made m breeding programs for several years, From an analysis of the progeny of such crosses where selections for an octoploid-like phenotype had been made, it was established that 149 out of 150 lines were hexaploid in chromosome number, C-banding and in situ hybridization demonstrated that all but five of the 62 lines analyzed in detail contained visible chromosomes or segments from the D genome. Only four lines had D-genome chromosome replacing rye chromosomes. All of the remaining 53 D-genome substitutions involved the replacing of wheat chromosomes from either the A or B genomes. This establishes the ease with which D-genome genes can be placed into triticale without the loss of rye chromosomes.

Notes: C-banding, which stains the heterochromatic regions of chromosomes, was utilized in order to ascertain whether or not several varieties from a Yugoslavian wheat-breeding program contained a 1RS/1BL substitution or a 1RS/1BL translocation. Only one variety contained the 1R (1B) substitution, while in the remaining sixteen varieties, the 1RS/1BL translocation was present. The C-banding results were confirmed utilizing an SDS-PAGE analysis, and the results indicated that both techniques should be used together. In all of the Yugoslavian wheats containing observable rye chromatin, the C-band corresponding to the nucleolus organizing region (NOR) was clearly reduced over that found in the wheat parents used in Yugoslavia or the other wheats from around the world containing either the substitution or the trans location. Some unknown selection pressure applied in the Yugoslavian wheat program in Novi Sad over the years has evidently caused a deletion of most of the rye NOR region.

Notes: Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) breeders often utilize alien sources to supply new genetic variation to their breeding programs. However, the alien gene complexes have not always behaved as desired when placed into a wheat background. The introgressed genes of interest may be linked to undesirable genes, expressed at low levels or not at all. The short arm of rye (Secale cereale L.) chromosome one (1RS) contains many valuable genes for wheat improvement. In order to study rye gene response to varying copy number, wheat lines were constructed which contained zero, two or four doses of 1RS. The meiotic behavior of rye chromosome 1R, and wheat/rye translocation chromosomes, 1AL/1RS and 1BL/1RS was studied in the F1 hybrids between wheat lines carrying 1R or the translocation chromosomes. The IRS arm was transmitted at a very high frequency; 98 % of the F2 plants had at least one of the chromosomes with a IRS arm. In addition, 44 % of the F2 plants received at least one copy of the chromosomes from each parent. Analysis of the meiotic behavior of the IRS arm suggested that few euploid wheat gametes were formed. Therefore, most of the pollen must have contained IRS. It is unknown whether the lack of euploid wheat pollen could account for the high transmission frequency of the rye chromosomes. There may have been differential survival of the embryos receiving the rye chromosome as well.

Notes: Limited genetic knowledge is available regarding crossability between hexaploid triticale (2n= 6x= 42, 21″, AABBRR, amphiploid Triticum turgidum L.-Secale cereale L.) and rye (2n= 14, 7″, RR). Our objectives were to determine (1) the crossability between triticales and rye and (2) the inheritance of crossability between F2 progeny from intertriticale crosses and rye. First, ‘8F/Corgo’, a hexaploid triticale, was crossed as a female with two landrace ryes, ‘Gimonde’ and, ‘Vila Pouca’ and two derived north European cultivars, ‘Pluto’ and ‘Breno’. These crosses produced 21.7, 20.9, 5.9, and 5.6%, seed-set or crossability, respectively, showing that the landrace ryes produced higher seed-set than the cultivars. Second, ‘Gimonde’ rye was crossed as a male with four triticales for 3 years. The control cross, ‘Chinese Spring’ wheat × rye, produced 80-90% seed-set. Of the four triticales, ‘Beagle’ produced 35.7-56.8% seed-set. The other three triticales produced less than 20% seed-set, showing that the triticales differ in crossability with ‘Gimonde’ rye. Third, six FiS from intertriticale crosses (‘8F/Corgo’בBeagle’, ‘Beagle’בCachirulo’, ‘Lasko’בBeagle’, ‘8F/Corgo’בCachirulo’, ‘Lasko’בCachirulo’, ‘Lasko’ב8F/Corgo’) were crossed to ‘Gimonde’ rye. Results indicated that lower crossability trait was partially dominant in the two F1S from crosses involving ‘Beagle’(high crossability) with‘8F/Corgo’ and ‘Cachirulo’(low crossability) and completely dominant in the ‘Beagle’בLasko’ cross, as it happens in wheat. Fourth, segregants in four F2 populations (‘Lasko’בBeagle’, ‘8F/Corgo’בBeagle’, ‘Lasko’ב8F/Corgo’, and‘8F/Corgo’בCachirulo’) were crossed with rye. Segregation for crossability was observed, although distinct segregation classes were blurred by environmental and perhaps other factors, such as self-incompatibility alleles in rye. Segregation patterns showed that ‘Beagle’, with high crossability to rye, carries either Kr1 or Kr2. The three triticales with low crossability with rye were most likely homozygous for Kr1 and Kr2. Therefore, it is likely that the Kr loci from A and B genomes acting in wheat also play a role in triticale × rye crosses.

Notes: Powdery mildew (caused by Erysiphe graminis) and yellow rust (caused by Puccinia striiformis) are the two most serious wheat diseases found in China. Rye chromosomes, carrying genes for resistance to these diseases, were introduced into common wheat in two generations using chromosome engineering and anther culture. The F1 hybrids from a cross involving a hexaploid triticale (×Triticosecale Wittmack) בChinese Spring’ nulli-tetrasomic N6DT6A wheat aneuploid line were anther cultured and doubled-haploid plants were regenerated. Using genomic in situ hybridization, C-banding and biochemical marker analyses, one of the anther-cultured lines (ZH-1)studied in detail, proved to be a doubled-haploid with one rye chromosome pair added (1R) and a homozygous 6R/6D substitution (2n= 44). The line was tested for expression of disease resistance and found to be highly resistant to powdery mildew and moderately resistant to yellow rust.