Production of aneuhaploid and euhaploid sporocytes by meiotic restitution in fertile hybrids between durum wheat Langdon chromosome substitution lines and Aegilops tauschii.

Fertile F(1) hybrids were obtained between durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf.) Langdon (LDN) and its 10 disomic substitution (LDN DS) lines with Aegilops tauschii accession AS60 without embryo rescue. Selfed seedset rates for hybrids of LDN with AS60 were 36.87% and 49.45% in 2005 and 2006, respectively. Similar or higher selfed seedset rates were observed in the hybrids of 1D (1A), 1D (1B), 3D (3A), 4D (4B), 7D (7A), and 2D (2B) with AS60, while lower in hybrids of 3D (3B) + 3BL, 5D (5A) + 5AL, 5D (5B) + 5B and 6D (6B) + 6BS with AS60 compared with the hybrids of LDN with AS60. Observation of male gametogenesis showed that meiotic restitution, both first-division restitution (FDR) and single-division meiosis (SDM) resulted in the formation of functional unreduced gametes, which in turn produced seeds. Both euhaploid and aneuhaploid gametes were produced in F(1) hybrids. This suggested a strategy to simultaneously transfer and locate major genes from the ancestral species T. turgidum or Ae. tauschii. Moreover, there was no significant difference in the aneuhaploid rates between the F(1) hybrids of LDN and LDN DS lines with AS60, suggesting that meiotic pairing between the two D chromosomes in the hybrids of LDN DS lines with AS60 did not promote the formation of aneuhaploid gametes.