CYTOPLASMIC HOMOLOGY BETWEEN AEGILOPS TRIUNCIALIS AND AE. UMBELLULATA
The Triticum aestivum L. (2n = 42; AABBDD) and T. durum Desf. (2n = 28; AABB) genomes were substituted into the cytoplasm of two Aegilops triuncialis L. (2n = 28; CCCuCu) accessions. In F1 (ABCCu) and in a 42-chromosome backcross plant (AABBCCu) meiotic pairing between the C- and Cu-genome chromosomes was substantially reduced. Therefore, some of the pairing in the F1 of Ae. caudata L. (2n = 14; CC) × Ae. umbellulata Zhuk. (2n = 14; CuCu) may have been of the homoelogous type. In early backcrosses with T. aestivum, the euploid gametes or zygotes did not function in plants having Aegilops chromosome(s), but euploid plants with Ae. triuncialis cytoplasm were obtained in the fifth backcross. These plants were used as the cytoplasmic source to substitute the T. durum genomes into Ae. triuncialis cytoplasm; euploid durum plants were obtained in the second backcross. Alloplasmic T. durum and T. aestivum plants with Ae. triuncialis cytoplasm had closer resemblance to the plants with Ae. umbellulata cytoplasm than to those with Ae. caudata cytoplasm. These nucleo-cytoplasmic interactions indicated cytoplasmic similarity between Ae. umbellulata and Ae. triuncialis.