Cytological analysis on the distribution and origin of the alien chromosome pair conferring blue aleurone color in several European common wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) strains

Abstract

Meiotic chromosome pairing and Giemsa C-banding analyses in crosses of several European blue-grained wheat strains with Chinese Spring double ditelosomic and other aneuploid lines showed that Triticum aestivum Blaukorn strains "Berlin," "Probstdorf," "Tschermak," and "Weihenstephan" are chromosome substitutions, in which the complete wheat chromosome 4A pair is replaced, whereas the strains "Brünn" and "Moskau" are 4B substitutions. The alien chromosome pair in all of these strains is an A genome chromosome (4A) from diploid Triticum monococcum or T. boeoticum not present in common tetraploid and hexaploid cultivated wheats. The Blaukorn strain Weihenstephan "W 70a86" possesses, in addition to a rye chromosome pair 5R compensating for the loss of part of chromosome 5D, a 4A/5DL translocation replacing chromosome pair 4B of wheat.

The colours of durum wheat: a review

“…The gene for blue aleurone was transferred from the tall wheatgrass Agropyron elongatum to bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) (Zeller et al 1991;Morrison et al 2004). Similarly, translocation lines of the tall wheatgrass Thinopyrum ponticum with the blue aleurone gene(s) have also been characterised (Zheng et al 2006).…”

Wheats with purple and blue grains: a review

“…In the German language blaukorn literally means blue grain. The breeding history of the various lines according to Zeller et al (1991) Cermeno & Zeller (1988), who showed that Blaukorn Berlin, Blaukorn Tschermak and Blaukorn Probstdorf were substitution lines in which chromosome pair, 4A a from T. aestivum is replaced by chromosome pair 4A b° of Triticum boeoticum or T. monococcum. The same holds for Blaukorn Weihenstephan.…”

“…Zeller (1976) suggested the blue-grain colour of Blaukorn W70a86, could derive from a species other than rye. He and his co-workers finally concluded that it 'possesses, in addition to a rye chromosome pair 5R compensating for the loss of part of chromosome 5D, a 4A/5DL translocation replacing chromosome 4B of wheat' (Zeller et al, 1991).…”

“…Furthermore, during the 7th International Wheat Genetics Symposium at Cambridge, U.K. in 1988 wheat chromosome 4A was renamed 4B, and 4B became 4A (Miller & Koebner, 1988). However, this chromosome 4A, present in tetraploid and hexaploid wheats is not homologous to chromosome 4A of diploid wheat (Zeller et al, 1991;Dvorak et al, 1990). Therefore Dvorak et al (1990) designated chromosome 4A of polyploid wheats as 4A a (a = aestivum).…”

“…However, Joppa & Maan (1982) referred to xenia in the purple grains of their T. boeoticum material, thus implying that pigmentation did not involve the pericarp. In this regard, Zeller et al (1991) referred to T. boeoticum as the source of the blue pigmentation of the grains of some of the Blaukorn accessions. Therefore, it seems that T. boeoticum is a source of blue aleurone, rather than purple pericarp.…”