Changes in the meiotic pairing behaviour of a winter wheat-winter barley hybrid maintained for a long term in tissue culture, and tracing the barley chromatin in the progeny using GISH and SSR markers

The aim of the present study was to produce backcross progenies in a new winter wheat ('Asakaze komugi') x winter barley ('Manas') hybrid produced in Martonvasar. As no backcross seeds were obtained from the initial hybrids, young inflorescences of the hybrids were used for in vitro multiplication in three consecutive cycles until a backcross progeny was developed. The chromosome constitution of the regenerated hybrids was analysed using genomic in situ hybridization (GISH) after each in vitro multiplication cycle. The seven barley chromosomes were present even after the third in vitro multiplication cycle but abnormalities were observed. Sixteen BC2 plants containing, according to GISH analysis, one to three complete barley chromosomes. two deletion barley chromosomes and a dicentric wheat-barley translocation were grown to maturity from the single backcross progeny. The barley chromatin was identified using 20 chromosome-specific barley SSR markers. All seven barley chromosomes were represented in the BC2, plants. A deletion breakpoint at FL +/- 0.3 on the 5HL chromosome arm facilitated the physical localization of microsatellite markers.