Abstract
SummaryDespite some notable successes, only a fraction of the genetic variation available in wild relatives has been utilized to produce superior wheat varieties. This is as a direct result of the lack of availability of suitable high‐throughput technologies to detect wheat/wild relative introgressions when they occur. Here, we report on the use of a new SNP array to detect wheat/wild relative introgressions in backcross progenies derived from interspecific hexaploid wheat/Ambylopyrum muticum F1 hybrids. The array enabled the detection and characterization of 218 genomewide wheat/Am. muticum introgressions, that is a significant step change in the generation and detection of introgressions compared to previous work in the field. Furthermore, the frequency of introgressions detected was sufficiently high to enable the construction of seven linkage groups of the Am. muticum genome, thus enabling the syntenic relationship between the wild relative and hexaploid wheat to be determined. The importance of the genetic variation from Am. muticum introduced into wheat for the development of superior varieties is discussed.
Highlights
Hexaploid bread wheat, which is an allopolyploid composed of three distinct genomes, that is the AA genome from Triticum urartu, the BB genome from an Aegilops speltoides-like progenitor and the DD genome from Aegilops tauschii (Dvorak and Zhang, 1990; Dvorak et al, 1993; McFadden and Sears, 1946), evolved only once or at best a few times approximately 10 000 years ago (Charmet, 2011)
Wheat has been through a severe genetic bottleneck with the sum total of genetic variation present in the species today being a direct result of only 10 000 years of genetic mutation and through possible outcrossing events that may have occurred with other species, for example tetraploid wheat
There is growing evidence that wheat yields are plateauing and that this is a direct result of the exhaustion of the available genetic variation compounded by environmental change (Brisson et al, 2010; Charmet, 2011; Ray et al, 2013)
Summary
Hexaploid bread wheat, which is an allopolyploid composed of three distinct genomes, that is the AA genome from Triticum urartu, the BB genome from an Aegilops speltoides-like progenitor and the DD genome from Aegilops tauschii (Dvorak and Zhang, 1990; Dvorak et al, 1993; McFadden and Sears, 1946), evolved only once or at best a few times approximately 10 000 years ago (Charmet, 2011). The gene pool of modern cultivated wheat has been further restricted through selection for specific agronomically important traits, for example free threshing (Charmet, 2011; Cox, 1997). Wheat is one of the world’s leading sources of food, and the narrow gene pool available for the development of superior varieties is of major concern heightened by increasing global population predictions. There is growing evidence that wheat yields are plateauing and that this is a direct result of the exhaustion of the available genetic variation compounded by environmental change (Brisson et al, 2010; Charmet, 2011; Ray et al, 2013). There is an urgent need to identify new sources of genetic variation that can be used to develop superior wheat varieties
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