Abstract
THE common bread wheat of cultivation, Triticum aestivum, is an allo-hexaploid with 42 chromosomes. The other important cultivated wheats, such as T. durum, are allo-tetraploids with 28 chromosomes. Both, it is believed, are derived from hybrids between diploid species within the Triticinae. It is generally agreed also that one of the diploid ancestors, a Triticum such as T. monococcum, contributed one of the genomes, A, that is found in both the tetraploid, AABB, and in the hexaploid, AABBDD. More recently it has been established that the D genome was contributed by Aegilops squarrosa1,2. There is some doubt about the origin of the B genome. The most favoured view is that it is derived from Ae. speltoides3,4. Others favour Ae. bicornis5 or Ae. longissima, or an Agropyron6–8. At present the choice between the latter is difficult to make on the basis of standard cytological and genetical evidence.
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REES, H. Deoxyribonucleic Acid and the Ancestry of Wheat. Nature 198, 108–109 (1963). https://doi.org/10.1038/198108a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/198108a0
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