II. ANNOUNCEMENTS

New publication: Wheat Near-isogenic Lines
by N. Watanabe, S.F. Koval, and V.S. Koval.

Near-isogenic lines are the most convenient objects for a wide range of biological and agricultural experiments. Many achievements in the fields of plant immunity and pest resistance became possible only due to substitution of conventional testers with NILs. The information on NILs is scattered over numerous (and frequently poorly accessible) issues. Therefore, the demand for a guide of NILs impelled the authors to prepare this monograph.

The monograph begins with a treatment of methodological issues, including strategies for breeding NILs, selection of donors, and correction of their residual genetic contamination. The problems of stability and principles of preservation of NILs in gene banks are discussed. The NILs of the soft wheat Novosibirskaya 67 (S.F. Koval), Saratovskaya 29 (V.A. Krupnov and O.I. Maistrenko), Vrn-marked lines from Odessa (A.F. Stel'makh), and various NILs bred at the Institute for Plant Industry in St. Petersburg (A.F. Merezhko, O.P. Mirtofanova, and I.G. Odintsova) are described in detail. Near-isogenic lines of durum wheat, including those bred in Gifu, Japan (N. Watanabe), also are characterized. Numerous tables from the original publications of different authors are included to provide the reader with the characteristics of particular series of lines.

The monograph is intended for a wide range of readers­university and agricultural college students, plant breeders, agrochemists, geneticists, and molecular biologists.

Wheat Near-Isogenic Lines, 156 pp, printed and published by Sankeiha, 2-24-1 Nakamaru-cho, Kita-ku, Nagoya 462-0056, Japan, ISBN 4-88361-131-0, is available upon request from the author at Faculty of Agriculture, Gifu University, Gifu 501-1193, Japan or by E-mail to watnb@cc.gifu-u.ac.jp.

Table of contents.

• Section 1. General, theoretical, and applied items. Principles and strategy of developing NILs, choosing donors, NIL genetic polution, parallel lines, isoline stability, preservation of NILs in the gene bank, and restrictions in the use of isogenic lines.
• Section 2. Isogenic lines of the cultivar Novosibirskaya 67. Resistance to brown rust, hairy leaf, glaucouslessness, awned spike, increased plant height, shortened stem, erectoid leaf, spike length and duration of vegetation, spike glume length, and shortage of chlorophyll.
• Section 3. Developed isogenic lines based on winter cultivars. Isogenic lines of the Breeding-Genetic Institute of Ukranian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Odessa for earliness and spike parameters, duration of vernalization, Ppd loci, and earliness per se; lines by O.P. Mitrofanova; lines of A.F. Merezhko; and isogliadin analogues by M.M. Kopus.
• Section 4. Developed isogenic lines based on the cultivars of the Saratov Breeding Centre. Isogenic lines by V.A. Krupnov for short stem, solid stem, grain color, awned spike, grain-protein content, resistance to brown rust, and photoperiodic sensitivity; backcrossed lines by O.I. Maystrenko, Novosibirsk; and lines by I.G. Odintsova, Vavilov Institute, St. Petersburg, with genes for resistance to brown rust.
• Section 5. Durum wheat near-isogenic lines. Durum wheat NILs, gene mapping in durum wheat, and prospects.