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Restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis was carried out to tag the alien genes for brown planthopper (BPH) resistance and earliness introgressed from wild species Oryza australiensis into cultivated rice, O. sativa L. One introgression line (IR65482-4-136-2-2), resistant to biotypes 1, 2, and 3 of BPH and early in flowering, was selected from BC2F4 of the cross between O. sativa (IR31917-45-3-2) and O. australiensis (accession 100882). Recurrent parent, O. australiensis, and introgression line were surveyed for RFLP using probes of chromosomes 10 and 12. Two probes, RG457 and CDO98, detected introgression from O. australiensis. Cosegregation between introgressed characters and molecular markers was studied in F2 derived from the cross between the introgression line and recurrent parent. The gene for BPH resistance is linked with RG457 of chromosome 12 at a distance of 3.68 ± 1.29 cM, and the gene for earliness is linked with CDO98 of chromosome 10 at a distance of 9.96 ± 3.28 cM. Such close linkage is useful in marker-based selection while transferring BPH resistance from introgression line into other elite breeding lines. Introgression at the molecular level indicates that the mechanism of alien gene transfer is probably genetic recombination through crossing over rather than substitution of whole or large segment of chromosomes of wild species.Key words: molecular tagging, alien gene introgression, rice, wild species, brown planthopper resistance.

Oryza latifolia, a tetraploid wild relative of cultivated rice is an important source of resistance to bacterial blight (BB), the brown planthopper (BPH) and the whitebacked planthopper (WBPH). Interspecific hybrids were obtained between an elite breeding line (IR31917-45-3-2) of Oryza sativa (2n=24 AA) and O. latifolia Acc. No. 100914 (2n=48 CCDD). The crossability in F1 was 7.58% and it ranged from 0.11 to 0.62 in backcross generations. The F1 hybrid showed 2-6 II, 0-2 III, 0-1 IV and 22-32 I; the mean being 3.92 II + 0.11 III + 0.02 IV + 27.30 I per cell at diakinesis. Monosomic alien addition lines (MAALs) having a 2n chromosome complement of O. sativa and one chromosome of O. latifolia were characterized based on morphology and isozyme banding pattern. The MAALs were designated as MAAL-1, MAAL-2, MAAL-4, MAAL-5, MAAL-6, MAAL-7, MAAL-8, MAAL-9, MAAL-10, MAAL-11 and MAAL-12. The female transmission rates of the alien chromosome varied from 4.4 to 35.5%, whereas 8 of the 11 MAALs transmitted the alien chromosome through the male gamete, the range being 1.7% (MAAL 10) to 11.9% (MAAL 12). Disomic progenies in BC3 and BC4 generations had complete resemblance to the O. sativa parent. Of the 2,295 disomic BC3F3 progenies, 309 showed introgression for resistance to BPH and 188 each for WBPH and BB resistance. Four plant progenies which were resistant to both BPH and WBPH were also resistant to BB race 2 of the Philippines. Nine of the 34 BC3F1 plants showed introgression for ten allozymes of O. latifolia, such as Est5, Amp1, Pgi1, Mdh3, Pgi2, Amp3, Pgd2, Est9, Amp2 and Sdh1, located on 8 of the 12 chromosomes. Alien introgression was also detected for morphological traits such as long awns, earliness, black hull, purple stigma and apiculus. Abnormal plants with many wild-species traits suddenly appeared in normal disomic progenies. These plants showing instability and abnormal segregation behaviour are being investigated for the activation of transposons.

Oryza australiensis, a diploid wild relative of cultivated rice, is an important source of resistance to brown planthopper (BPH) and bacterial blight (BB). Interspecific hybrids between three breeding lines of O. sativa (2n=24, AA) and four accessions of O. australiensis (2n=24, EE) were obtained through embryo rescue. The crossability ranged from 0.25% to 0.90%. The mean frequency of bivalents at diakinesis/metaphase I in F1 hybrids (AE) was 2.29 to 4.85 with a range of 0–8 bivalents. F1 hybrids were completely male sterile. We did not obtain any BC1 progenies even after pollinating 20,234 spikelets of AE hybrids with O. sativa pollen. We crossed the artificially induced autotetraploid of an elite breeding line (IR31917-45-3-2) with O. australiensis (Acc. 100882) and, following embryo rescue, produced six F1 hybrid plants (AAE). These triploid hybrids were backcrossed to O. sativa. The chromosome number of 16 BC1 plants varied from 28 to 31, and all were male sterile. BC2 plants had 24–28 chromosomes. Eight monosomic alien addition lines (MAALs) having a 2n chromosome complement of O. sativa and one chromosome of O. australiensis were selected from the BC2 F2 progenies. The MAALs resembled the primary trisomies of O. sativa in morphology, and on the basis of this morphological similarity the MAALs were designated as MAAL-1, -4, -5, -7, -9, -10, -11, and -12. The identity of the alien chromosome was verified at the pachytene stage of meiosis. The alien chromosomes paired with the homoeologous pairs to form trivalents at a frequency of 13.2% to 24.0% at diakinesis and 7.5% to 18.5% at metaphase I. The female transmission rates of alien chromosomes varied from 4.2% to 37.2%, whereas three of the eight MAALs transmitted the alien chromosome through the male gametes. BC2 progenies consisting of disomic and aneuploid plants were examined for the presence of O. australiensis traits. Alien introgression was detected for morphological traits, such as long awns, earliness, and Amp-3 and Est-2 allozymes. Of the 600 BC2 F4 progenies 4 were resistant to BPH and 1 to race 6 of BB. F3 segregation data suggest that earliness is a recessive trait and that BPH resistance is monogenic recessive in two of the four lines but controlled by a dominant gene in the other two lines.

Nine Triticum durum — T. monococcum amphiploids (AABBAmAm) were synthesized by chromosome doubling of sterile triploid F1 hybrids involving nine T. durum (AABB) cultivars and a T. monococcum (AmAm) line. The triploid F1 hybrids had a range of 4–7 bivalents and 7–13 univalents per PMC. The synthetic amphiploids, however, showed a high degree of preferential pairing of chromosomes of the A genomes of diploid and tetraploid wheats. The amphiploids were meiotically stable and fully fertile. Superiority of four amphiploids for tiller number per plant, 100-grain weight, protein content and resistance to Karnal bunt demonstrated that these could either be commercially exploited as such after overcoming certain inherent defects or used to introgress desirable genes into durum and bread wheat cultivars. Methods for improvement of these amphiploids are discussed.

The occurrence of homozygous matromorphic progenis in Pisum sativum L. has, been assessed by using heterozygous female parents in intervarietal and intergeneric crosses. The pollen was subjected to three treatments, i.e. prickle pollination (delayed), gamma irradiation and giibberellic acid (GA3) application, The genetic status of the induced matromorphic progeny was determined by using, multiple gene markers. The frequency or occurrence of homomatromorphs was 3 to 7 per cent, which needs to be increased by pod, ovule or embryo culture, respectively.

F 6 and F 7 generations were produced from control and irradiated F 2 seeds of a cross between Bonneville and T163 varieties of pea ( Pisum sativum L.). Mean performances of these generations, together with those of the parental lines, were compared for ten metric traits and the variability partitioned by a weighted least squares analysis. Irradiation induced both additive and dominance gene effects for three characters, namely, height of first pod bearing node, number of days to flowering and seed yield, and only additive effects for seed number. No variation could be induced for height at flowering, height at maturity, number of secondary branches and total number of pods. Variation neither existed nor could be induced in the number of primary branches and the number of nodes. In general, an additive component ascribable to irradiation was greater than that for conventional segregation, thus increasing the chances of obtaining a wider range of F ∞ pure-breeding lines.

The triple testcross breeding design was applied to a set of F7 and RF7 pure-breeding lines derived from normal and irradiated F2 seeds of the cross 'Bonneville' × T 163. Two phenotypically extreme lines and their F1 were used as testers in both control and irradiated materials. Epistasis was, in general, not an important component of variation. Additive component was the most important, while dominance was detected in 3 of 10 cases. The additive and dominance components in general decreased following irradiation as a result of additive and dominance effects of induced new alleles being smaller than those generated by the original alleles they replaced.Key words: triple testcross, irradiation, single seed descent, genetic anaylsis, pea.

Sixteen translocation stocks developed in pearl millet, Pennisetum typhoides (Burm.) S.&H. (2 n = 14) were inter-crossed and the meiotic configurations of f1's analysed. A translocation tester set comprising five translocation stocks, each involving two non-homologous chromosomes has been developed.

The inheritance of isoproturon tolerance exhibited by the selected progenies of durum wheat was investigated. This tolerance to the herbicide isoproturon had been transferred from Triticum monococcum to durum wheat cultivars. It was shown to be conditioned by a single dominant gene

Trigonella foecum-graecum L. (fenugreek) a member of the Leguminosae is used as vegetable, forage and for preservative purposes. The seeds form an important source of diosgenin and yamogenin to be used in the steroid industry. In addition to the intact plant, cultured cells also yield secondary products. Callus formation and extraction of diosgenin or trigolline from static cultures has been demonstrated in Trigonella (1–6). Plant regeneration from leaf callus cultures have been reported in two species of Trigonella (7). However, no information is available on the callus growth and plant regeneration in different genotypes with various ploid levels. The present investigation was conducted to determine the response of five diploid and autotetraploid strains of Trigonella foenum-graecum L. for callus growth and plant regeneration from excised cotyledons, root and stem segments.

The inheritance of yellow berry, a grain disorder in durum and bread wheats, was studied in six intervarietal crosses in bread wheat. The trait was found to be controlled by either two or three dominant genes. Monosomic analysis using ‘Chinese Spring’ monosomic series showed the presence of two major dominant genes on chromosomes 1A and 7A, and four modifiers on 4A, 4B, 6A and 6D, which influence the expression of yellow berry in bread wheat.

Secondary trisomics and telotrisomics representing the 12 chromosomes of rice were isolated from the progenies of primary trisomics. A large population of each primary trisomic was grown. Plants showing variation in gross morphology compared to the primary trisomics and disomic sibs were selected and analyzed cytologically at diakinesis and pachytene. Secondary trisomics for both arms of chromosomes 1, 2, 6, 7 and 11 and for one arm of chromosomes 4, 5, 8, 9 and 12 were identified. Telotrisomics for short arm of chromosomes 1, 8, 9 and 10 and for long arms of chromosomes 2, 3 and 5 were isolated. These secondary and telotrisomics were characterized morphologically and for breeding behavior. Secondary trisomics 2n + 1S · 1S, 2n + 1L · 1L, 2n + 2S · 2S, 2n + 2L · 2L, 2n + 6S · 6S, 2n + 6L · 6L and 2n + 7L · 7L are highly sterile, and 2n + 1L · 1L, 2n + 2L · 2L and 2n + 7L · 7L do not set any seed even upon backcrossing. Telotrisomics are fertile and vigorous. Genetic segregation of 43 marker genes was studied in the F2 or backcross progenies. On the basis of segregation data, these genes were delimited to specific chromosome arms. Correct orientation of 10 linkage groups was determined and centromere positions on nine linkage groups were approximated. A revised linkage map of rice is presented.