An attempt to extract B genome plants from Triticum durum by PFP (para-fluorophenylalanine) treatment

Abstract

Among the three genomes of common wheat (2n=6x=42, AABBDD), only the B genome donor has not been identified yet. This work was planned to extract B genome plants from durum wheat (2n=4x=28, AABB), which has common B genome chromosomes, by means of PFP (para-fluorophenylalanine) treatment. PFP was treated on the stigmas of durum wheat at 6 or 24h after self-pollination. The seeds were harvested and the chromosome number was observed in root tip cells. Among 573 plants observed, only three plants showed chromosomal aberrations, namely, one plant having fourteen chromosomes, one plant having one dicentric chromosome, and one plant having 29 chromosomes. The plant having fourteen chromosomes was found to be haploid, genome constitution being AB, by observation of meiosis. Calluses were then induced from immature inflorescences of the haploid plant. They were subcultured for nine months with the medium containing PFP. Chromosome aberrations were significantly induced in the cultured cells treated with PFP, though the effect on chromosome number reduction by PFP treatment was not clear. Thus, plants having only B genome chromosomes were not obtained in the present experiment.