Hexaploid Wheat × Barley (Triticum aestivum × Hordeum vulgare) Intergeneric Hybrids: Production and Analysis

Hybrids of taxonomically distant plant species have been important sources of genetic variation for introgression breeding in cereals and the generation of maternal haploid lines via paternal genome elimination followed by whole genome duplication. Despite a long history of crossing wheat and barley, the two most important temperate-zone cereals, efficient hybridization between the two species has not been achieved until recently. Here, we describe the crossing technique between suitable wheat and barley genotypes and demonstrate two procedures to confirm and characterize the resulting plants. First, multiplex PCR analysis allows the quick determination of chromosome composition in young plants. Further, advanced in situ hybridization tools such as FISH-GISH provide additional information about the fine structure of the hybrid chromosome complement.