Analysis of meiosis in triticale (XTriticosecale Wittmack) X rye (Secale cereale L.) F1 hybrids at three ploidy levels

Summary Triticales (XTriticosecale Wittmack) at three ploidy levels (8x, 6x, 4x, x=7) were crossed with diploid rye (Secale cereale L.) to produce a solitary hypopentaploid hybrid (2n=32), and a number of tetraploid (2n=4x=28) and triploid (2n=3x=21) hybrids. The hybrids exhibited a morphology which was intermediate between the parents. The number of bivalents ranged from 1–7 (4.65 per cell) in hypopentaploid, from 2–12 (7.13 per cell) in tetraploid and from 4–9 (6.84 per cell) in triploid hybrids. In 4x and 3x hybrids, trivalents and quadrivalents were also observed at low frequencies (range 0–1; mean 0.01–0.03 per cell). Chiasmata frequency was highest in triploid hybrids (12.44 per cell), lowest in hypopentaploid (5.37 per cell) and intermediate in tetraploids (10.54 per cell). More than 7¹¹ were found in 39.7% pollen mother cells (PMC's) in the 4x hybrids and in 5.0% PMCs in 3x hybrids. It is concluded that an increase in the relative proportion of wheat chromosomes in the hybrids had a slight suppression effect on homologous as well as homoeologous pairing of rye chromosomes. Contrary to this, the relative increase in rye complement promoted homoeologous pairing between wheat chromosomes. In triploid hybrids, the chiasmata frequency as well as the c value were the highest, suggesting that in tetraploid hybrids rye chromosomes had a reduced pairing (low frequency of ring bivalents).