Open Access

Plant breeders exploit conventional crop improvement methods to meet the ever-increasing demands for food production. However, among cultivated crops they are finding less and less germplasm having desired traits with which to make the needed improvements. Fortunately, new and useful genetic resources are being found in wild uncultivated plant species that have a close or distant genetic relationship to food crops. The challenge is to expediently incorporate this alien germplasm into existing food crops and simultaneously sustain genetic diversity. In the Triticeae tribe, these goals are being addressed through intergeneric and interspecific hybridization methodologies. Aided by critical embryo/tissue culture techniques, researchers have ingeniously produced an ample array of wide hybrids among Triticeae species. The current status suggests that hybridization barriers can be readily circumvented and novel germplasm developed. Simultaneously, conventional and molecular diagnostics have evolved to the level where alien introgression detection is no longer a complex process. To speed up alien introgression and production/maintenance of genetic stock programs, use of polyhaploidy through sexual hybridization of bread wheat with maize, pearl millet, sorghum, and Tripsacum has emerged as a stable technique. The above areas form a package that facilitates exploitation of alien genetic diversity for wheat improvement. These views shall be elucidated while demonstrating our main emphasis on the D genome synthetic hexaploid germplasm developed in CIMMYT.

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9806|AGRIS 9802|anterior|R97-98PROCE|FINAL9798

CIMMYT Publications Collection