© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 221
M. Molnár-Láng et al. (eds.), Alien Introgression in Wheat,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-23494-6_9
Chapter 9
Wheat– Aegilops Introgressions
Peng Zhang , Ian S. Dundas , Robert A. McIntosh , Steven S. Xu ,
Robert F. Park , Bikram S. Gill , and Bernd Friebe
9.1 Introduction
In the tribe Triticeae , Aegilops is the most closely related genus to Triticum and
represents the largest portion of the secondary gene pool for cultivated wheat (van
Slageren 1994 ). Based on the botanical classifi cation by van Slageren ( 1994 ), the
genus Aegilops comprises ten diploid, eight tetraploid, two tetraploid-hexaploid,
and two hexaploid species, and fi ve nontypical varieties with six diverse genomes
including C, D, M, N, S, and U (Table 9.1 ). Among the diploid Aegilops species, Ae.
tauschii Coss. (2 n = 2× = 14, DD) is the D genome donor of hexaploid wheat and
Ae. speltoides Tausch (2 n = 2× = 14, SS) is believed to be the donor of B genome of
tetraploid ( T. turgidum L., 2 n = 4× = 28, AABB) and hexaploid wheat. In addition to
Ae. tauschii and Ae. speltoides , fi ve polyploid species carry the D genome, and four
diploid and three polyploid species have the S genome (Table 9.1 ).
P. Zhang • R. A. McIntosh • R. F. Park
Plant Breeding Institute , University of Sydney ,
107 Cobbitty Road , Camden , NSW 2570 , Australia
I. S. Dundas
School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, Waite Campus , The University of Adelaide ,
PMB 1 , Glen OsmoND SA 5064 , Australia
S. S. Xu
USDA-ARS Cereal Crops Research Unit , Northern Crop Science Laboratory ,
Fargo , ND 58102-2765 , USA
B. S. Gill • B. Friebe (*)
Department of Plant Pathology, Wheat Genetic Resources Center , Kansas State University ,
Manhattan , KS 66506-5502 , USA
e-mail: [email protected]