Transferring Useful Rye Genes to Wheat, Using Triticale as a Bridge

Rye has already proven to be a good donor of genes for improving important traits and diversity in wheat breeding. The agronomic advantages of wheat-rye translocations, as well as their detrimental pleiotropic effects, were shown to be dependent on the source of the transferred rye chromatin. This justifies continued effort for introgression of rye genes from various sources into various wheat backgrounds. There are still many genes of interest for wheat improvement, not yet transferred, that are available in the rye genome. This paper describes the strategy applied at the National Agricultural Research and Development Institute Fundulea (Romania), to take advantage of the existence of intensive breeding programs in both winter wheat and triticale, and presents some of the results obtained so far by applying this strategy, in obtaining lines with common bunt, barley yellow dwarf (BYDV) and other diseases resistances, as well as improved seedling vigour and crop spectral reflectance.