Cytomolecular discrimination of the Am chromosomes of Triticum monococcum and the A chromosomes of Triticum aestivum using microsatellite DNA repeats.

The cytomolecular discrimination of the Am- and A-genome chromosomes facilitates the selection of wheat-Triticum monococcum introgression lines. Fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) with the commonly used DNA probes Afa family, 18S rDNA and pSc119.2 showed that the more complex hybridisation pattern obtained in T. monococcum relative to bread wheat made it possible to differentiate the Am and A chromosomes within homoeologous groups 1, 4 and 5. In order to provide additional chromosomal landmarks to discriminate the Am and A chromosomes, the microsatellite repeats (GAA)n, (CAG)n, (CAC)n, (AAC)n, (AGG)n and (ACT)n were tested as FISH probes. These showed that T. monococcum chromosomes have fewer, generally weaker, simple sequence repeat (SSR) signals than the A-genome chromosomes of hexaploid wheat. A differential hybridisation pattern was observed on 6Am and 6A chromosomes with all the SSR probes tested except for the (ACT)n probe. The 2Am and 2A chromosomes were differentiated by the signals given by the (GAA)n, (CAG)n and (AAC)n repeats, while only (GAA)n discriminated the chromosomes 3Am and 3A. Chromosomes 7Am and 7A could be differentiated by the lack of (GAA)n and (AGG)n signals on 7A. As potential landmarks for identifying the Am chromosomes, SSR repeats will facilitate the introgression of T. monococcum chromatin into wheat.