The settlement of the Baden culture at site Pietrzejowice 14, Kocmyrzów-Luborzyca commune. Results of the archaeological and archaeobotanical analyses of the materials from the 2021 excavations

The distribution of early flowering alleles of VRN-A3 was found to be biased to low latitudes, and these alleles may contribute to environmental adaptability to low latitudes in cultivated emmer wheat. In wheat (Triticum spp.), the flowering time is an important trait for successful seed production and yield by adapting to the regional environment. An early flowering allele of VRN-A3 with 7- and 25-bp insertions in the promoter region (Vrn-A3a-h1) has recently been reported from the analysis of an emmer wheat (Triticum turgidum L. ssp. dicoccum) accession, TN26. This early flowering allele of VRN-A3 might be associated with the regional adaptation of wheat. In this study, we elucidated its geographic distribution to assess the importance of the early flowering allele of VRN-A3 in worldwide wheat collection. From sequence analysis, we identified six VRN-A3 alleles with the 7- and 25-bp insertions, namely, Vrn-A3a-h2, Vrn-A3a-h3, Vrn-A3a-h4, Vrn-A3a-h5, Vrn-A3a-h6, and Vrn-A3c-h2 from wild emmer wheat, while we identified two VRN-A3 alleles with these insertions, Vrn-A3a-h2 and Vrn-A3c-h1 from cultivated tetraploid and hexaploid wheat species in addition to Vrn-A3a-h1. Among VRN-A3 alleles distributed in cultivated wheat, we found that Vrn-A3a-h2 promoted early heading, whereas Vrn-A3c-h1 did not affect heading time. Our analysis showed that the distribution of early flowering alleles of VRN-A3 dominated in cultivated emmer wheat in Ethiopia and India, which actually showed an early flowering phenotype. This implied that the early flowering alleles of VRN-A3 contribute to adaptability to a low-latitude environment in cultivated emmer wheat. We could not find durum (T. turgidum L. ssp. durum) and bread wheat (T. aestivum L. ssp. aestivum) accessions with these early flowering alleles. Our findings indicated that Vrn-A3a-h1 and Vrn-A3a-h2 were useful for breeding of early flowering cultivars in durum and bread wheat varieties.

Tocols and carotenoids of einkorn, emmer and spring wheat varieties: Selection for breeding and production

A high level of drought tolerance is an important objective in breeding new generation wheat varieties. A group of six landraces of the emmer wheat ( Triticum diccocum Schrank), as well as two landraces, two old cultivars and two modern varieties of bread wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.) were evaluated for their ability to discriminate 13 C, a trait related to stomatal closure and consequently, an important component tolerance to drought. Three emmer wheat landraces and one of the bread wheat landraces has the lowest. Therefore, emmer wheat may play the role of a donor of the tolerance to drought in wheat breeding programs targetting drought prone conditions. Key words: Emmer wheat, bread wheat, drought tolerance, carbon isotope ratio, discrimination.

Within the HEALTHGRAIN diversity screening program, the variation in the content of dietary fiber and components thereof in different types of wheat was studied. The wheat types were winter (131 varieties) and spring (20 varieties) wheats (both Triticum aestivum L., also referred to as common wheats), durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf., 10 varieties), spelt wheat (Triticum spelta L., 5 varieties), einkorn wheat (T. monococcum L., 5 varieties), and emmer wheat (Triticum dicoccum Schubler, 5 varieties). Common wheats contained, on average, the highest level of dietary fiber [11.5-18.3% of dry matter (dm)], whereas einkorn and emmer wheats contained the lowest level (7.2-12.8% of dm). Intermediate levels were measured in durum and spelt wheats (10.7-15.5% of dm). Also, on the basis of the arabinoxylan levels in bran, the different wheat types could be divided this way, with ranges of 12.7-22.1% of dm for common wheats, 6.1-14.4% of dm for einkorn and emmer wheats, and 10.9-13.9% of dm for durum and spelt wheats. On average, bran arabinoxylan made up ca. 29% of the total dietary fiber content of wheat. In contrast to what was the case for bran, the arabinoxylan levels in flour were comparable between the different types of wheat. For wheat, in general, they varied between 1.35 and 2.75% of dm. Einkorn, emmer, and durum wheats contained about half the level of mixed-linkage beta-glucan (0.25-0.45% of dm) present in winter, spring, and spelt wheats (0.50-0.95% of dm). All wheat types had Klason lignin, the levels of which varied from 1.40 to 3.25% of dm. The arabinoxylan contents in bran and the dietary fiber contents in wholemeal were inversely and positively related with bran yield, respectively. Aqueous wholemeal extract viscosity, a measure for the level of soluble dietary fiber, was determined to large extent by the level of water-extractable arabinoxylan. In conclusion, the present study revealed substantial variation in the contents of dietary fiber and constituents thereof between different wheat types and varieties.

VIRVELINĖS KERAMIKOS KULTŪRA LIETUVOJE 2800–2400 cal BC

BackgroundThe ability to engineer cereal crops by gene transfer technology is a powerful and informative tool for discovering and studying functions of genes controlling environmental adaptability and nutritional value. Tetraploid wheat species such as emmer wheat and Timopheevi wheat are the oldest cereal crops cultivated in various world areas long before the Christian era. Nowadays, these hulled wheat species are gaining new interest as donors for gene pools responsible for the improved grain yield and quality, tolerance for abiotic and biotic stress, resistance to pests and disease. The establishing of efficient gene transfer techniques for emmer and Timopheevi wheat may help in creation of modern polyploid wheat varieties.ResultsIn the present study, we describe a robust protocol for the production of fertile transgenic plants of cultivated emmer wheat (Russian cv. ‘Runo’) using a biolistic delivery of a plasmid encoding the gene of green fluorescent protein (GFP) and an herbicide resistance gene (BAR). Both the origin of target tissues (mature or immature embryos) and the type of morphogenic calli (white or translucent) influenced the efficiency of stable transgenic plant production in emmer wheat. The bombardment of nodular white compact calluses is a major factor allowed to achieve the highest transformation efficiency of emmer wheat (on average, 12.9%) confirmed by fluorescence, PCR, and Southern blot. In the absence of donor plants for isolation of immature embryos, mature embryo-derived calluses could be used as alternative tissues for recovering transgenic emmer plants with a frequency of 2.1%. The biolistic procedure based on the bombardment of immature embryo-derived calluses was also successful for the generation of transgenic Triticum timopheevii wheat plants (transformation efficiency of 0.5%). Most of the primary events transmitted the transgene expression to the sexual progeny.ConclusionThe procedures described here can be further used to study the functional biology and contribute to the agronomic improvement of wheat. We also recommend involving in such research the Russian emmer wheat cv. ‘Runo’, which demonstrates a high capacity for biolistic-mediated transformation, exceeding the previously reported values for different genotypes of polyploid wheat.

Turkey has a role in the distribution of many plants across continents and it is the main center of wheat. Due to its climatic characteristics and geostrategic importance, Turkey also has important genetic resources for the cultivation and development for many local wheat varieties. Therefore, it is important to determine local wheat genotypes that can adapt to different ecological conditions in Turkey and define ones having high performance in terms of efficiency and quality characteristics to make them useful. Emmer wheat which is grown in and around Kars City in northeastern Anatolia region is seen as valuable. In the present study, the phylogeographic structure analyses of 10 emmer (Triticum dicoccum Schrank) wheat populations and 2 populations of cultivated wheat (Triticum aestivum) obtained from Kars region were made by Simple Sequence Repeats (SSR). Within the scope of the study, Principal Coordinates Analysis (PCoA), phylogenetic analysis, and genetic-geographic distance analysis were performed. 3 main groups of differentiation at the populations were supported by PCoA and phylogenetic analyses. The comparison between geographic and genetic distance matrices for all genotypes revealed a statistically negative correlation (R2=0.04). Emmer wheat is an important local genetic resource and the cultivation area in agriculture should be expanded and used in breeding studies. In addition, it has been determined that SSR markers can give more comprehensive results with higher numbers in wheat genotyping studies.

Emmer wheat as the progenitor of common wheat, holds the genetic potentiality for improvement of wheat yield, quality and stress tolerance such as drought and salt. To comprehensively evaluate the salt tolerance of emmer wheat, a total of 30 traits including growth, physiology and photosynthesis related as well as K+ and Na+ content of 30 wild emmer and 14 durum wheat accessions were systematically investigated and compared between normal and saline conditions. Salt tolerance index (STI) based on multiple regression analysis of these traits was calculated and five wild emmer accessions showed high salt tolerance, which could be used as valuable resource for wheat salt tolerance improvement. Furthermore, wild emmer genotypes showed wider trait performance variation compared to durum wheat, indicating the higher genetic diversity in wild emmer wheat. Then, shoot Na+ content, shoot K+/Na+ ratio, root length and root surface area were identified as suitable indexes for salt tolerance evaluation. Na+ exclusion mechanism was found to be playing an important role in response to salt stress in emmer wheat. The salt tolerance in emmer wheat was systematically characterized here, which not only provided the elite germplasm for wheat improvement, but also provided the efficient method and some useful indexes for salt tolerance assessing.

Cultivated emmer wheat, Triticum dicoccon Schrank, a tetraploid species with hulled grain, has been largely cultivated during seven millennia in the Middle-East, Central and West Asia, and Europe. It has been largely replaced by hulless species and is now a minor crop, with the exception of some countries like India, Ethiopia and Yemen, where its grain is used for preparing traditional foods. Nutritional qualities and specific taste and flavor of emmer wheat products have led to a recent development of the cultivation in some European countries. Emmer wheat also possesses valuable traits of resistance to pests and diseases and tolerance to abiotic stresses and is increasingly used as a reservoir of useful genes in wheat breeding. In the present article, a review concerning taxonomy, diversity and history of cultivation of emmer wheat is reported. Grain characteristics and valuable agronomic traits are described. Some successful examples of emmer wheat utilization for the development of durum or bread wheat cultivars are examined, and the perspectives in using emmer wheat as health food and for the development of new breeding germplasm are discussed.

The wild diploid goat grass (Aegilops tauschii Cosson), and the cultivated tetraploid emmer wheat (Triticum turgidum L. subsp. dicoccon (Schrank) Thell.) may be important sources of genetic diversity for improving hexaploid bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). Through interspecific hybridization of emmer wheat and Ae. tauschii, followed by chromosome doubling, it is possible to produce homozygous synthetic hexaploid wheat. Fifty-eight such synthetic hexaploids were evaluated for grain quality parameters: grain weight, length, and plumpness, grain hardness, total protein content, and protein quality (SDS-Sedimentation volume, SDS-S). Most synthetics showed semi-hard to hard grain texture. Results showed significant genetic variation among the synthetic hexaploids for protein content, SDS-S values, and grain weight and plumpness. Quality measurement values of synthetic hexaploids were regressed on corresponding values of the emmer wheat parents. With this offspring-parent regression, protein content and SDS-S values explained 8.7 and 28.8%, respectively, of the variation among synthetics, indicating a significant contribution from the emmer wheat parents for these traits. The synthetic hexaploids, in general, had significantly higher protein content (15.5%, on average) and longer grains than ‘Seri M82’, the bread wheat control (13.1% protein content). Synthetics with SDS-S values and grain weights higher than those of ‘Seri M82’ were also identified. Protein content among synthetics showed significantly negative correlations with grain weight and plumpness, but no correlation with SDS-S values. Despite these negative correlations, 10 superior synthetic hexaploid wheats, derived from nine different emmer wheat parents and with above average levels of protein content, SDS-S values, and either grain weight or plumpness, were identified. This study shows that genetic variation for quality in tetraploid emmer wheat can be transferred to synthetic hexaploid wheats and combined with plump grains and high grain weight, to be used for bread wheat breeding.

Key messageSNP-based genome scanning in worldwide domesticated emmer germplasm showed high genetic diversity, rapid linkage disequilibrium decay and 51 loci for stripe rust resistance, a large proportion of which were novel.Cultivated emmer wheat (Triticum turgidum ssp. dicoccum), one of the oldest domesticated crops in the world, is a potentially rich reservoir of variation for improvement of resistance/tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses in wheat. Resistance to stripe rust (Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici) in emmer wheat has been under-investigated. Here, we employed genome-wide association (GWAS) mapping with a mixed linear model to dissect effective stripe rust resistance loci in a worldwide collection of 176 cultivated emmer wheat accessions. Adult plants were tested in six environments and seedlings were evaluated with five races from the United States and one from Italy under greenhouse conditions. Five accessions were resistant across all experiments. The panel was genotyped with the wheat 90,000 Illumina iSelect single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array and 5106 polymorphic SNP markers with mapped positions were obtained. A high level of genetic diversity and fast linkage disequilibrium decay were observed. In total, we identified 14 loci associated with field resistance in multiple environments. Thirty-seven loci were significantly associated with all-stage (seedling) resistance and six of them were effective against multiple races. Of the 51 total loci, 29 were mapped distantly from previously reported stripe rust resistance genes or quantitative trait loci and represent newly discovered resistance loci. Our results suggest that GWAS is an effective method for characterizing genes in cultivated emmer wheat and confirm that emmer wheat is a rich source of stripe rust resistance loci that can be used for wheat improvement.

Chlorotoluron is a selective phenylurea herbicide widely used for broad-leaved and annual grass weed control in cereals. Variation in the response to chlorotoluron (CT) was found in both hexaploid bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and wild tetraploid wheat (Triticum dicoccoides KöRN.). Here, we describe the comparative mapping of the CT resistance gene (Su1) on chromosome 6B in bread and wild wheat using RFLP markers. In bread wheat, mapping was based on 58 F(4) single-seed descent (SSD) plants of the cross between a genotype sensitive to chlorotoluron, 'Chinese Spring' (CS), and a resistant derivative, the single chromosome substitution line, CS ('Cappele-Desprez' 6B) [CS (CAP6B). In T dicoccoides, mapping was based on 37 F(2) plants obtained from the cross between the CT-susceptible accession B-7 and the resistant accession B-35. Nine RFLP probes spanning the centromere were chosen for mapping. In bread wheat Su1 was found to be linked to alpha-Amy-1 (9.84 cM) and Xpsr371 (5.2 cM), both on the long arm of 6B, and Nor2 (2.74 cM) on the short arm. In wild wheat the most probable linkage map was Nor2-Xpsr312-Su1-Pgk2, and the genetic distances between the genes were 24.8cM, 5.3cM, and 6.8cM, respectively. These results along with other published map data indicate that the linear order of the genes is similar to that found in T. aestivum. The results of this study also show that the Su1 gene for differential response to chlorotoluron has evolved prior to the domestication of cultivated wheat and not in response to the development and use of chemicals.

Wheat is the most widely grown crop on earth, together with rice it is second to maize in total global tonnage. One of the emerging threats to wheat is stripe (yellow) rust, especially in North Africa, West and Central Asia and North America. The most efficient way to control plant diseases is to introduce disease resistant genes. However, the pathogens can overcome rapidly the effectiveness of these genes when they are wildly used. Therefore, there is a constant need to find new resistance genes to replace the non-effective genes. The resistance gene pool in the cultivated wheat is depleted and there is a need to find new genes in the wild relative of wheat. Wild emmer (Triticum dicoccoides) the progenitor of the cultivated wheat can serve as valuable gene pool for breeding for disease resistance. Transferring of novel genes into elite cultivars is highly facilitated by the availability of information of their chromosomal location. Therefore, our goals in this study was to find stripe rust resistant and susceptible genotypes in Israeli T. dicoccoides population, genotype them using state of the art genotyping methods and to find association between genetic markers and stripe rust resistance. We have screened 129 accessions from our collection of wild emmer wheat for resistance to three isolates of stripe rust. About 30% of the accessions were resistant to one or more isolates, 50% susceptible, and the rest displayed intermediate response. The accessions were genotyped with Illumina'sInfinium assay which consists of 9K single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers. About 13% (1179) of the SNPs were polymorphic in the wild emmer population. Cluster analysis based on SNP diversity has shown that there are two main groups in the wild population. A big cluster probably belongs to the Horanum ssp. and a small cluster of the Judaicum ssp. In order to avoid population structure bias, the Judaicum spp. was removed from the association analysis. In the remaining group of genotypes, linkage disequilibrium (LD) measured along the chromosomes decayed rapidly within one centimorgan. This is the first time when such analysis is conducted on a genome wide level in wild emmer. Such a rapid decay in LD level, quite unexpected for a selfer, was not observed in cultivated wheat collection. It indicates that wild emmer populations are highly suitable for association studies yielding a better resolution than association studies in cultivated wheat or genetic mapping in bi-parental populations. Significant association was found between an SNP marker located in the distal region of chromosome arm 1BL and resistance to one of the isolates. This region is not known in the literature to bear a stripe rust resistance gene. Therefore, there may be a new stripe rust resistance gene in this locus. With the current fast increase of wheat genome sequence data, genome wide association analysis becomes a feasible task and efficient strategy for searching novel genes in wild emmer wheat. In this study, we have shown that the wild emmer gene pool is a valuable source for new stripe rust resistance genes that can protect the cultivated wheat.

The cultivation of emmer wheat (Triticum dicoccon Schrank) in Iran has been decreased and limited to the marginal agricultural lands of western parts of the country. In the present study, 40 emmer wheat accessions including 13 Iranian landraces and 27 wild and domesticated accessions obtained from CIMMYT, were evaluated for genetic diversity using 24 SSR and four EST-SSR markers, distributed over all the chromosomes. The number of detected alleles was 168 (for all the studied accessions) and 84 (for the Iranian landraces), with average polymorphic information contents of 0.61 and 0.30, respectively. Based on the allelic information and cluster analysis, wild emmer wheats were more variable than domestic emmers and the Iranian emmer landraces had low genetic variability making an isolated cluster distinct from the domesticated emmers of Transcaucasia. The low genetic diversity in Iranian emmer landraces may be due to genetic drift and decreased cultivation area during the past years proving a need to manage emmer wheat genetic resources in Iran towards increasing its genetic diversity, breeding and conservation.

Purpose Cultivated emmer wheat (Triticum dicoccum), a hulled tetraploid species (2n = 4x = 28, AABB) is a minor crop grown in India for its low glycaemic index and high protein (16%) content. However, its genetic variability is limited. This study aims to enhance the variability of cultivated emmer wheat using mutation approach. Materials and methods A tall better yielding, leaf and stem rust resistant inter-specific line (BC2F2 line derived from Triticum dicoccum cv. NP200 X Triticum carthlicum) was subjected to physical mutagens (gamma rays and electron beam), with the objective to develop a semi-dwarf, high-yielding, leaf rust and stem rust resistant lines. Mutant and parental lines were evaluated for resistance to leaf rust and stem rust at seedling and adult plant stages and also validated the presence of rust resistance genes through linked molecular markers. Results Three stable semi-dwarf inter-specific mutant lines with high yield and resistance to leaf rust and stem rust were selected from the electron beam (250 Gy) treated mutagenized population. Seedling and adult plant evaluations displayed resistance to leaf rust and stem rust and molecular marker analyses confirmed the presence of linked marker to stem rust resistance genes (Sr2/Lr27/Yr30, Sr17/Lr14a/Pm5 and Sr40) and leaf rust resistance genes (Lr18, Lr50 and Lr61) in mutant and parental lines. In addition, plant stature, culm strength and yield improvement was observed as compared to parental lines. Conclusion The resistance present in the parent lines remained intact in the selected mutant lines even after exposure to electron beam. Mutants thus obtained could be released as cultivars or utilized as a potential source for high yielding, rust resistance for the improvement of emmer wheat. This is the first report of beneficial mutants in emmer wheat using electron beam.