We dissected barley chromosomes 1H and 6H added to common wheat by the gametocidal system and identified structural changes of the chromosomes by fluorescence in situ hybridization and genomic in situ hybridization. We found five aberrations of chromosome 1H, all of which lacked the long arm: one small fragment with the subtelomeric HvT01 sequence, one terminal deletion, and three telocentric chromosomes of the short arm. We established 33 dissection lines carrying single aberrant 6H chromosomes, of which 15 were deletions, 16 were translocations and two were isochromosomes. We conducted PCR analysis of the aberrant barley chromosomes using 75 and 81 EST markers specific to chromosomes 1H and 6H, respectively. This enabled us to construct a cytological map of chromosome 6H and to compare it to the previously reported genetic map and also to the physical map, which were released by the International Barley Genome Sequencing Consortium. The marker orders on the three maps were largely in agreement. The cytological map had better resolution in the proximal region of chromosome 6H than the corresponding genetic map. We discuss some of the discrepancies in marker order between the three maps that might be due to intraspecific polymorphism and gene duplication, as well as to technical problems inherent in the physical mapping process.

Stem rust resistance genes have been found in four different sources of Aegilops speltoides . These include diploid accessions AEG357-4 and AEG874-60 and the amphiploids Chinese Spring/ Ae. speltoides TA8026 and TS01. Stem rust resistance was mapped to the 2S chromosomes derived from each of these lines. The previously reported 2B-2S#3 translocation derived from AEG357-4 was found to carry two stem rust resistance genes, here temporarily named SrAes2t and SrAes3t . The resistance genes found on the 2S chromosomes each derived from TA8026, TS01 and AEG874-60 are named SrAes4t , SrAes5t and SrAes6t , respectively. Lines carrying genes SrAes2t and SrAes3t are being distributed to wheat breeding programs around the world.