ITEMS FROM JAPAN

Gifu University, Faculty of Agriculture, 1-1 Yanagido, Gifu 501-1193 Japan.

Triticum ispahanicum Heslot: an alternative source of the gene for long glume.

Nobuyoshi Watanabe.

The Ispahan emmer wheat, T. ispahanicum Heslot, was first discovered in 1957 during the French expedition of Vinnot-Bourgen in the Ispaphan province. The spike of T. ispahanicum is more slender and the glumes are longer than those of T. turgidum var. polonicum. The long glume genes from T. polonicum (P) and T. ispahanicum (P2) were introduced into the background of an experimantal line, LD222. Two near-isogenic lines showed differences in length, width, and the length/width ratio of glumes. The glume of P2-LD222 was shorter than that of P-LD222 and was intermediate between those of LD222 and P-LD222. The gene P2 is located approximately 36.5 cM from the cn-B1 locus, which controls the chlorina trait, and approximately 40 cM from the centromere on the long arm of 7B. Location of P2 to approximately 29.6 cM from the Pc locus provided additional evidence that the order of loci was cn-B1, P2, and Pc. Therefore, the possibility exists that a paralogous gene set conditions long glumes. If this proves to be true, the gene symbols for long glume can be modified. P and P2 would become P-A1 and P-B1, respectively.

Publications.

Watanabe N, Yotani Y, and Furuta Y. 1996. Inheritance and chromosomal location of a gene for long glume in durum wheat. Euphytica 91:235-239.

Watanabe N. 1998. Genetic control of long glume by homoeologous chromosomes in tetraploid wheat (submitted).