Flowering Time Diversification and Dispersal in Central Eurasian Wild Wheat Aegilops tauschii Coss.: Genealogical and Ecological Framework

Timing of flowering is a reproductive trait that has significant impact on fitness in plants. In contrast to recent advances in understanding the molecular basis of floral transition, few empirical studies have addressed questions concerning population processes of flowering time diversification within species. We analyzed chloroplast DNA genealogical structure of flowering time variation in central Eurasian wild wheat Aegilops tauschii Coss. using 200 accessions that represent the entire species range. Flowering time measured as days from germination to flowering varied from 144.0 to 190.0 days (average 161.3 days) among accessions in a common garden/greenhouse experiment. Subsequent genealogical and statistical analyses showed that (1) there exist significant longitudinal and latitudinal clines in flowering time at the species level, (2) the early-flowering phenotype evolved in two intraspecific lineages, (3) in Asia, winter temperature was an environmental factor that affected the longitudinal clinal pattern of flowering time variation, and (4) in Transcaucasus-Middle East, some latitudinal factors affected the geographic pattern of flowering time variation. On the basis of palaeoclimatic, biogeographic, and genetic evidence, the northern part of current species' range [which was within the temperate desert vegetation (TDV) zone at the Last Glacial Maximum] is hypothesized to have harbored species refugia. Postglacial southward dispersal from the TDV zone seems to have been driven by lineages that evolved short-flowering-time phenotypes through different genetic mechanisms in Transcaucasus-Middle East and Asia

Tetraploid Wheat Landraces in the Mediterranean Basin: Taxonomy, Evolution and Genetic Diversity

The geographic distribution of genetic diversity and the population structure of tetraploid wheat landraces in the Mediterranean basin has received relatively little attention. This is complicated by the lack of consensus concerning the taxonomy of tetraploid wheats and by unresolved questions regarding the domestication and spread of naked wheats. These knowledge gaps hinder crop diversity conservation efforts and plant breeding programmes. We investigated genetic diversity and population structure in tetraploid wheats (wild emmer, emmer, rivet and durum) using nuclear and chloroplast simple sequence repeats, functional variations and insertion site-based polymorphisms. Emmer and wild emmer constitute a genetically distinct population from durum and rivet, the latter seeming to share a common gene pool. Our population structure and genetic diversity data suggest a dynamic history of introduction and extinction of genotypes in the Mediterranean fields

Low temperature-induced necrosis shows phenotypic plasticity in wheat triploid hybrids

Hybrid necrosis sometimes appears in triploid hybrids between tetraploid wheat and Aegilops tauschii Coss. Two types of hybrid necrosis (type II and type III ) were observed when cultivar Langdon was used as female parent for hybrid production. Type II necrosis symptoms occurred only under low temperature conditions, whereas bushy and dwarf phenotypes were observed under normal temperature conditions. The developmental plasticity might be related to a temperature-responsive alteration of meristematic activity at the crown tissue of triploid hybrids. Epistatic interaction between the AB and D genomes induced not only upregulation of a number of defense-related genes, but also extensive changes in plant architecture in the type II necrosis hybrids. Such phenotypic plasticity was also observed in other cross combinations between cultivated tetraploid wheat and type II necrosis-induced Ae. tauschii accessions. Wild tetraploid wheat, Triticum turgidum subspecies dicoccoides, did not induce type II necrosis in the triploid hybrids, indicating the possibility of identifying the chromosomal location of a causal gene for type II necrosis in the AB genome