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ARS Home » Plains Area » Fargo, North Dakota » Edward T. Schafer Agricultural Research Center » Cereal Crops Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #79874
Title: WIDE HYBRIDIZATION AND GENOME RELATIONSHIPS IN CEREALS: A MOLECULAR ASSESSMENT.

Author
item Bommineni, Venkata
item Jauhar, Prem

Submitted to: Maydica
Publication Type: Review Article
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/9/1997
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Many of the wild grasses are important reservoirs of agronomically superior traits which can continue to help improve the current cultivars of wheat, rice, barley, oat, maize and other cereals. An understanding of genomic and hence phylogenetic relationships helps in planning effective breeding programs designed to transfer desirable genes from alien species into otherwise superior cultivars of crop plants. In the last few decades, cytogeneticists and plant breeders have successfully transferred several desirable traits into cereal crops from their wild relatives through intergeneric and interspecific hybridization. Several biochemical and molecular techniques have been used to characterize the alien chromatin/genes introgressed into crop cultivars, thus helping the process of germplasm enhancement. This article evaluates the molecular aspects of wide hybrids and genome relationships between cereal crops and their wild relatives, and suggests future lines of work on improvement of cereal crops by this technology.

Technical Abstract: Many of the wild grasses are important reservoirs of agronomically superior traits which can continue to help improve the current cultivars of wheat, rice, barley, oat, maize and other cereals. An understanding of genomic and hence phylogenetic relationships helps in planning effective breeding programs designed to transfer desirable genes from alien species into otherwise superior cultivars of crop plants. In the last few decades, cytogeneticists and plant breeders have successfully transferred several desirable traits into cereal crops from their wild relatives through intergeneric and interspecific hybridization. Several biochemical and molecular techniques have been used to characterize the alien chromatin/genes introgressed into crop cultivars, thus helping the process of germplasm enhancement. This article evaluates the molecular aspects of wide hybrids and genome relationships between cereal crops and their wild relatives, and suggests future lines of work on improvement of cereal crops by this technology.