Flow sorting of C-genome chromosomes from Aegilops

Aegilops markgrafii, Ae. triuncialis and Ae. cylindrica are potential donors of useful genes for wheat improvement, but utilization of their genetic diversity is hampered by poor knowledge of their genomes. Molnár et al. use FISH to describe karyotypes of the three species and demonstrate that chromosomes 4C, 5C, 7C^t, T6U^tS.6U^tL-5C^tL, 1C^c and 5D^c can be purified by flow cytometric sorting. Using conserved orthologous set (COS) markers, they determine partial wheat–C-genome homology for group 1, 4 and 5 chromosomes, and discover a rearranged structure of chromosome 7C. These findings will accelerate the development of molecular tools to support introgression breeding in wheat.