Rye confers high anther extrusion to bread wheat via triticale x wheat crosses

Abstract

Man made cereal, triticale, aims to combine desirable traits of wheat and rye in a single crop species. Outcross promoting floral traits from rye such as anther size and extrusion are relevant for development of fertility restorers for hybrid wheat programme. A large set of germplasm lines derived from triticale x wheat crosses underwent preliminary characterization in a previous study (Yousef, 2015). The initial cross involved improved triticale variety TL 2908, and wheat variety Chinese Spring with Ph suppressor genes (CSS). This was followed by a backcross with CSS and further backcrosses with improved wheat variety PBW 343. The huge improvement for anther extrusion was obtained in PBW343 which otherwise is shy floret opener.