Modern wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is one of the most ozone (O(3))-sensitive crops. However, little is known about its genetic background of O(3) sensitivity, which is fundamental for breeding O(3)-resistant cultivars. Wild and cultivated species of winter wheat including donors of the A, B and D genomes of T. aestivum were exposed to 100 ppb O(3) or charcoal-filtered air in open top chambers ...

Radiation hybrid (RH) mapping is based on radiation-induced chromosome breakage and analysis of chromosome segment retention or loss using molecular markers. In durum wheat (Triticum turgidum L., AABB), an alloplasmic durum line [(lo) durum] has been identified with chromosome 1D of T. aestivum L. (AABBDD) carrying the species cytoplasm-specific (scsae) gene. The chromosome 1D of this line segr...

Bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) has a greater ability to exclude Na+ from its leaves and is more salt tolerant than durum wheat (Triticum turgidum L. subsp. durum [Desf.]). A novel durum wheat, Line 149, was found to contain a major gene for Na+ exclusion, Nax2, which removes Na+ from the xylem in the roots and leads to a high K+-to-Na+ ratio in the leaves. Nax2 was mapped to the distal region ...

ABSTRACT Fusarium head blight (FHB) caused by Fusarium graminearum is one of the most destructive diseases of durum (Triticum turgidum sp. durum) and common wheat (T. aestivum). Promising sources of FHB resistance have been identified among common (hexaploid) wheats, but the same is not true for durum (tetraploid) wheats. A previous study indicated that chromosome 7A from T. turgidum sp. dicocc...

Common wheat (Triticum aestivum) has for decades been a textbook example of the evolution of a major crop species by allopolyploidization. Using a sophisticated extension of the PCR technique, we have successfully isolated two single-copy nuclear genes, DMC1 and EF-G, from each of the three genomes found in hexaploid wheat (BA(u)D) and from the two genomes of the tetraploid progenitor Triticum ...

Meiotic nonreduction resulting in unreduced gametes is thought to be the predominant mechanism underlying allopolyploid formation in plants. Until now, however, its genetic base was largely unknown. The allohexaploid crop common wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), which originated from hybrids of T. turgidum L. with Aegilops tauschii Cosson, provides a model to address this issue. Our observations of...

Doubled haploid (DH) populations are useful to scientists and breeders in both crop improvement and basic research. Current methods of producing DHs usually need in vitro culture for extracting haploids and chemical treatment for chromosome doubling. This report describes a simple method for synthesizing DHs (SynDH) especially for allopolyploid species by utilizing meiotic restitution genes. Th...

Vernalization genes determine winter/spring growth habit in temperate cereals and play important roles in plant development and environmental adaptation. In wheat (Triticum L. sp.), it was previously shown that allelic variation in the vernalization gene VRN1 was due to deletions or insertions either in the promoter or in the first intron. Here, we report a novel Vrn-B1 allele that has a retrot...

Screening of a wheat (Triticum aestivum) cDNA library for starch-branching enzyme I (SBEI) genes combined with 5'-rapid amplification of cDNA ends resulted in isolation of a 4,563-bp composite cDNA, Sbe1c. Based on sequence alignment to characterized SBEI cDNA clones isolated from plants, the SBEIc predicted from the cDNA sequence was produced with a transit peptide directing the polypeptide in...

Microsatellites are an important constituent of plant genome and distributed across entire genome. In this study, genome-wide analysis of microsatellites in 8 Triticeae species and 9 model plants revealed that microsatellite characteristics were similar among the Triticeae species. Furthermore, genome-wide microsatellite markers were designed in wheat and then used to analyze the evolutionary r...