Genome analysis of intergeneric hybrids of apomictic and sexual Australian Elymus species with wheat, barley and rye: implication for the transfer of apomixis to cereals.

Four hybrids were obtained between three Australian Elymus taxa and three cereal grains: wheat, rye, and barley. Mean meiotic metaphase-I configurations were 41.14 I, 0.42 rod II, 0.003 ring II, and 0.01 III for E. scabrus var 'plurinervis' x Triticum aestivum (1 hybrid plant), 22.27 I, 2.63 rod II, 0.06 ring II, and 0.12 III for E. scabrus var 'scabrus' x Secale cereale (4 hybrid plants), and 26.65 I, 0.66 rod II, 0.00 ring II, and 0.01 III for E. scabrus var 'plurinervis' x Hordeum vulgare (13 hybrid plants). The I genome of barley also paired very little in a BIII hybrid of apomictic E. rectisetus x H. vulgare (2 hybrid plants). Megasporogenesis in this BIII hybrid was at least facultatively apomeiotic, with the same sort of nuclear elongation, apomeiotic division, and dyad formation seen previously in E. rectisetus itself. All four hybrid combinations were sterile. While spike morphology in the E. scabrus x T. aestivum and E. scabrus x H. vulgare hybrids were intermediate to their parents, E. scabrus x S. cereale and E. rectisetus x H. vulgare looked like their maternal parents.