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HAPLOID PRODUCTION VARIATION IN SEVERAL DURUM WHEAT CULTIVARS AND THEIR SYNTHETIC HEXAPLOID DERIVATIVES

A. MUJEEB-KAZI, J. AHMED*, A. GUL AND J. I. MIRZA

Abstract: Bread wheat haploids are being routinely produced by the sexual wheat/maize crossing protocol with perfect outputs across all its genotypes. A similar success however, has not been achieved for durum wheat cultivars. We evaluated 44 elite durum (Triticum turgidum L; 2n = 4x = 28, AABB) high yielding, widely adapted cultivars for their ability to generate haploids (n = 2x = 14, AB) when crossed by Zea mays (2n = 2x = 20). This gave a range from 0% to 12.3% across the 44 genotypes. Synthetic hexaploid (SH's) wheats derived from each of the 44 cultivars x Aegilops tauschii accessions gave a haploid frequency range from 2.5 to 42.6% providing unequivocal evidence that the D genome of Ae. tauschii significantly influenced haploid production efficiency in SH wheats. Durum cultivars amenable to haploidy induction are good candidates for molecular studies and gene transfer programs where doubled haploids have a distinct advantage.
 

National Agricultural Research Center, Islamabad, Pakistan.

Agricultural Biotechnology Research Institute, AARI, Faisalabad.