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Durum wheat is one of the important food and cash crops. The main goals in current breeding programs are improving its low yield potential, kernel characteristics, and lack of resistance or tolerance to some biotic and abiotic stresses. In this study, a nascent synthesized hexaploid wheat Lanmai/AT23 is used as the female parent in crosses with its AB genome donor Lanmai. A tetraploid line YL-443 with supernumerary spikelets and high resistance to stripe rust was selected out from the pentaploid F7 progeny. Somatic analysis using multicolor fluorescence in situ hybridization (mc-FISH) revealed that this line is a disomic substitution line with the 4B chromosome pair of Lanmai replaced by the 4D chromosome pair of Aegilops tauschii AT23. Comparing with Lanmai, YL-443 shows an increase in the number of spikelets and florets per spike by 36.3 and 75.9%, respectively. The stripe rust resistance gene Yr28 carried on the 4D chromosome was fully expressed in the tetraploid background. The present 4D(4B) disomic substitution line YL-443 was distinguished from the previously reported 4D(4B) lines with the 4D chromosomes from Chinese Spring (CS). Our study demonstrated that YL-443 can be used as elite germplasm for durum wheat breeding targeting high yield potential and stripe rust resistance. The Yr28-specific PCR marker and the 4D chromosome-specific KASP markers together with its unique features of pubescent leaf sheath and auricles can be utilized for assisting selection in breeding.

Durum wheat is one of the important food and cash crops. The main goals in current breeding programs are improving its low yield potential, kernel characteristics, and lack of resistance or tolerance to some biotic and abiotic stresses. In this study, a nascent synthesized hexaploid wheat Lanmai/AT23 is used as the female parent in crosses with its AB genome donor Lanmai. A tetraploid line YL-443 with supernumerary spikelets and high resistance to stripe rust was selected out from the pentaploid F7 progeny. Somatic analysis using multicolor fluorescence in situ hybridization (mc-FISH) revealed that this line is a disomic substitution line with the 4B chromosome pair of Lanmai replaced by the 4D chromosome pair of Aegilops tauschii AT23. Comparing with Lanmai, YL-443 shows an increase in the number of spikelets and florets per spike by 36.3 and 75.9%, respectively. The stripe rust resistance gene Yr28 carried on the 4D chromosome was fully expressed in the tetraploid background. The present 4D(4B) disomic substitution line YL-443 was distinguished from the previously reported 4D(4B) lines with the 4D chromosomes from Chinese Spring (CS). Our study demonstrated that YL-443 can be used as elite germplasm for durum wheat breeding targeting high yield potential and stripe rust resistance. The Yr28 -specific PCR marker and the 4D chromosome-specific KASP markers together with its unique features of pubescent leaf sheath and auricles can be utilized for assisting selection in breeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Successful generation of pentaploid wheat (genome, BBAAD) via interspecific hybridization between tetraploid wheat (BBAA) and hexaploid wheat (BBAADD) holds great promise to mutually exchange desirable traits between the two cultivated wheat species, as well as providing a novel facet for evolutionary studies of polyploid wheat. Taking advantage of the viable and fertile nature of an extracted tetraploid wheat (ETW) with a BBAA genome that is virtually identical with the BBAA component of a hexaploid common wheat, and a synthetic hexaploid wheat, we constructed four pentaploid wheats with several distinct yet complementary features, of which harboring homozygous BBAA subgenomes is a common feature. By using a combined FISH/GISH method that enables diagnosing all individual wheat chromosomes, we precisely karyotyped a larger number of cohorts from the immediate progenies of each of the four pentaploid wheats. We found that the BBAA component of hexaploid common wheat possesses a significantly stronger capacity to buffer and sustain imbalanced D genome chromosomes and appears to harbor more structural chromosome variations than the BBAA genome of tetraploid wheat. We also document that this stronger capacity of the hexaploid BBAA subgenomes behaves as a genetically controlled dominant trait. Our findings bear implications to the known greater than expected level of genetic diversity in, and the remarkable adaptability of, hexaploid common wheat as a staple crop of global significance, as well as in using pentaploidy as intermediates for reciprocal introgression of useful traits between tetraploid and hexaploid wheat cultivars.

Successful generation of pentaploid wheat (genome, BBAAD) via interspecific hybridization between tetraploid wheat (BBAA) and hexaploid wheat (BBAADD) holds great promise to mutually exchange desirable traits between the two cultivated wheat species, as well as providing a novel facet for evolutionary studies of polyploid wheat. Taking advantage of the viable and fertile nature of an extracted tetraploid wheat (ETW) with a BBAA genome that is virtually identical with the BBAA component of a hexaploid common wheat, and a synthetic hexaploid wheat, we constructed four pentaploid wheats with several distinct yet complementary features, of which harboring homozygous BBAA subgenomes is a common feature. By using a combined FISH/GISH method that enables diagnosing all individual wheat chromosomes, we precisely karyotyped a larger number of cohorts from the immediate progenies of each of the four pentaploid wheats. We found that the BBAA component of hexaploid common wheat possesses a significantly stronger capacity to buffer and sustain imbalanced D genome chromosomes and appears to harbor more structural chromosome variations than the BBAA genome of tetraploid wheat. We also document that this stronger capacity of the hexaploid BBAA subgenomes behaves as a genetically controlled dominant trait. Our findings bear implications to the known greater than expected level of genetic diversity in, and the remarkable adaptability of, hexaploid common wheat as a staple crop of global significance, as well as in using pentaploidy as intermediates for reciprocal introgression of useful traits between tetraploid and hexaploid wheat cultivars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Karyotypes of the polyploid parthenogenetic species Saga pedo from four localities in France and the Republic of Macedonia were constructed and compared. All these karyotypes consist of 70 chromosomes, which is more than twice that in other species of the genus. The chromosomes differ from each other, making the matching of homologues difficult. Karyotypes of French specimens are similar, except for differences in the heterochromatin. Compared to that of the Macedonian specimens those from French specimens differ by the shortening of a single chromosome. The difficulty experienced in identifying tetrads and even pairs of chromosomes indicates that either many chromosome rearrangements have occurred since the polyploidisation event(s) or that the addition of quite different genomes is the cause. On the other hand, that the karyotypes are similar indicates a common origin of both the Macedonian and French populations. Thus, most chromosome changes preceded the separation from their common ancestor. Both the DNA content and chromosome analyses suggest that the S. pedo karyotype is pentaploid and not tetraploid as previously proposed. This odd ploidy number rules out the hypothesis that it could only have originated by endoreduplication. It is more likely that it originated by the association of five copies of the 14,X haploid karyotype, which exists in the gametes of the closely related species, S. campbelli and S. rammei (male / female 2n = 27, X / 28, XX). Fertilization of a parthenogenetic 56, XXXX female by a 14, X spermatozoa could have resulted in the last increase in ploidy.

Results are given and discussed of karyological investigations on wild (19) and cultivated (2) populations of the invasive South African geophyteOxalis pes-capraeL. from 21 different localities (Italy 16, Switzerland 1, Morocco 1 and South Africa 3). Plants from naturalized populations growing wild in Italy and Morocco proved to always be pentaploid (2n = 35), with small, metacentric or slightly sub-metacentric chromosomes. In plants cultivated in the Botanical Garden in Rome, both pentaploid and tetraploid (2n = 28) numbers were found, the latter being the first record of tetraploid plants from Italy. All plants from South African wild populations included tetraploid plants; in one population (Kirstenbosch) pentaploid plants were also detected. It is suggested that pentaploid plants are possibly more widespread in the species' native area than is currently believed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]