Chromosomally engineered durum wheat: the potential of alien gene introgressions affecting disease resistance and quality.

Abstract

SUMMARY – As a result of the application of tools from both molecular ge netics and cytogenetics, wheat-alien geneintrogression projects carried out by means of chromosome engineering approaches are now benefiting by asubstantial gain in efficiency with respect to the past. We have recently exploited such tools in producing durum wheatrecombinant lines carrying separately the Lr19+Yp genes from Agropyron elongatum , the Pm13 gene from Aegilopslongissima and the Gli-D1/Glu-D3 and Glu-D1 genes from common wheat. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH),with total genomic DNA (GISH) of the alien donor or specific DNA sequences as probes, was mostly useful forisolation and characterization of desired products, i.e. lines containing alien chromosomal segments of sufficientlyreduced size to be well tolerated in a tetraploid background . Preliminary field and quality tests indicated the validityof such recombinant lines as promising candidates for durum wheat genetic improvement and varietal development.