[Monosomic alien addition lines: a new tool for studying and using plant genomics]

Interspecies hybridization and backcrossing is a means to transfer desirable genes from one species to another in breeding programs of higher plants. Monosomic alien addition lines (MAALs) can be produced via addition of single chromosome of an alien donor species to the entire chromosome complement of the recipient species. MAALs are powerful tools for elucidating genome structure and transferring genes. Backcrossing of MAALs to the recipient parent results in plants containing short overlapping introgressions, which cover the entire donor genome. These introgression lines can be used as vectors of alien genomic libraries in a recipient genetic background. In addition, a complete set of MAALs also serves as a library of the donor genome dissected into individual chromosome entities, which facilitates high-throughput marker allocation to individual donor chromosomes, and marker assignments and syntenic relationships can be compared between the donor chromosomes and the respective orthologous recipient chromosomes. Meanwhile, MAALs can be used to study the introgression mechanism and the pairing status of homologous chromosomes. In this review, we presented the production and properties of MAALs and highlighted their advantages for genetic breeding and fundamental researches.