Chromosome Pairing in Hybrid Progeny between Triticum aestivum and Elytrigia elongata .

In this study, the intergeneric hybrids F-1, F-2, BC1F1, BC1F2, and BC2F1 from Elytrigia elongata and Triticum aestivum crosses were produced to study their chromosome pairing behavior. The average E. elongata chromosome configuration of the two F-1 hybrids agreed with the theoretical chromosome configuration of 21I+ 7II, indicating that the genomic constitution of this F-1 hybrid was ABDStStE(e)E(b)E(x). Compared with the BC1F1 generation, the BC2F1 generation showed a rapid decrease in the number of E. elongata chromosomes and the BC1F2 generation showed a more extensive distribution of E. elongata chromosomes. In addition, pairing between wheat and E. elongata chromosomes was detected in each of the wheat-E. elongata hybrid progenies, albeit rarely. Our results demonstrated that genomic in situ hybridization (GISH) using an E. elongata genomic DNA probe offers a reliable approach for characterizing chromosome pairing in wheat and E. elongata hybrid progenies.