CYTOLOGY AND FERTILITY OF PENTAPLOID WHEAT HYBRIDS WITH INDUCED PAIRING BETWEEN HOMOEOLOGOUS CHROMOSOMES

Abstract

Two mutants, each promoting homoeologous chromosome pairing in hexaploid wheat (Triticum × aestivum L. emend gr. aestivum), in the cultivar Chinese Spring, ph1b at the Ph locus on chromosome 5BL and the other, ph2, on chromosome 3DS, were compared for their influence on chromosome pairing and fertility in pentaploid hybrids with Triticum turgidum L. emend var. dicoccoides (Korn. in litt. in Schweinf.). The mutants induced increased multivalent frequency over the normal pentaploid. Lower univalent frequencies in the ph2-pentaploid, compared with the normal pentaploid, indicated that D-genome chromosomes of the former were substantially involved in homoeologous pairing. Certain differences in other meiotic processes and fertility among the pentaploids may reflect differences in the activity of the pairing genes. There appeared to be a higher level of univalent elimination in pollen and egg cells in the ph2-, compared with the ph1b-pentaploid. Tetrad formation was close to normal in the ph2- pentaploid but exhibited high levels of abnormality (monads, dyads, triads and apolar tetrads) in the ph1b-pentaploid. Fertility levels in crosses of the pentaploids with hexaploid wheat, while low, were much lower for the ph1b-, compared with the ph2-pentaploid.