Evolutionary relationships based on heterochromatin bands in six species of the Triticinae

Abstract

The heterochromatin band patterns (C-bands) were used to identify individual chromosomes in Aegilops caudata, Ae. umbellulataAe. mutica, Elymus junceus, Haynal-dia villosa, and Agropyron spicatum. The heterochromatin bands were developed least in the first two Aegilops species; intermediate in Ae. mutica and Elymus, and highly developed in A. spicatum and H. villosa. Since C-bands represent sites of highly repetitive DNA, a part of the mechanism of genome evolution in these grasses has been by DNA amplification. Based on heterochromatin bands, Ae. caudata and Ae. umbellulata are more ciosely related to each other than to Ae. mutica. At the generic level, Agropyron and rye appear to be more closely related to each other than to Aegilops or Triticum. Ae. mutica and H. villosa did not appear to be the donors of the B genome to wheat.