Pentaploidization allows introgression of Aegilops tauschii into tetraploid wheat

Pentaploid hybrids produced from crosses between hexaploid and tetraploid wheats combine the genetic variation of both parents. Crossing a synthetic hexaploid wheat LM/AT23 with its AB-genome donor, the durum wheat LM, and selfing the pentaploid hybrids to the F7 generation yielded mostly euploid tetraploids and a few hexaploids. Two special derivatives of tetraploid were isolated, including a 4D(4B) substitution line with large panicles and high resistance to stripe rust and a 2DS.2AL translocation line with non-waxy epidermis. The discovery of small D-genome introgressions in the A and B genomes suggested that pentaploidization can be used to induce homoeologous recombination. The introgression of D genome from Aegilops tauschii to the AB genomes might promote the development of super tetraploid wheat with hexaploid biological characteristics (especially stress resistance) and quality functions and the functional study of the introduced chromosomes or fragments. (c) 2025 Crop Science Society of China and Institute of Crop Science, CAAS. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co., Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC- ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).