Synthetic amphiploids in breeding--genetic and evolutionary studies in wheat

Synthetic amphiploids play an important role in breeding programs of wheat and in the genetic and evolutionary studies of the wheat group. One of the most obvious uses of amphiploidy has been the development of hexaploid and octaploid Triticale. The utilization of synthetic amphiploids as a means of introducing commercially important features of related species into cultivated wheat is now well documented. The projects to produce hybrid wheat are based on the manipulation of cytoplasms and restorers by means of artificially obtained amphiploids. The amphiploidization of interspecific hybrids by treatment with colchicine results in homozygosity. Therefore, a direct use of synthetic amphiploids for genetic studies has been limited to some extent. More often they were used indirectly, viz. as the initial step in the production of single chromosome addition and substitution lines. Such lines were used for detailed and highly informative genetic analyses and also as sources of alien variation for wheat breeding. Crosses between some of the synthetic amphiploids resembling natural species and the cultivated wheats have been successfully used in the evolutionary studies of wheats.