Development and identification of a dwarf wheat-Leymus mollis double substitution line with resistance to yellow rust and Fusarium head blight

Abstract Leymus mollis (Trin.) Pilger (2 n  = 4 x  = 28, NsNsXmXm,), a wild relative of common wheat, possesses many potentially valuable traits for genetic improvement of wheat, including strong, short stems, long spikes with numerous spikelets, tolerance to drought and cold stresses, and resistance to many fungal and bacterial diseases. In the present study, a wheat– L. mollis double substitution line DM96 was selected from a F 6 progeny of a cross between M842-16 (an octoploid Tritileymus line) and D4286 (a Triticum durum line) using genomic in situ hybridization (GISH), simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers, and expressed sequence tagged sequence site (EST-STS) markers. Chromosome analysis at mitosis and meiosis showed that DM96 had a chromosome constitution of 2 n  = 42 = 21II. GISH analysis indicated that DM96 carried 38 chromosomes from wheat and two homologous pairs of Ns chromosomes from L. mollis . Fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) showed that chromosomes 2Ns and 3Ns from L. mollis had replaced wheat chromosomes 2D and 3D in DM96, which was confirmed by SSR and STS markers. The newly developed substitution line DM96 has shorter height, longer spikes and more kernels than its parents and showed high resistance to stripe rust and Fusarium head blight (FHB). Thus, this line is a new bridge material for the production of useful translocation lines for wheat genetic research and genetic improvement of wheat yield and disease resistance in breeding programs.