| Outline of the Kyoto University Botanical Expedition
to the Caucasus, May - August, 1966 (under planning) K. YAMASHITA Biological Laboratory, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan 1. Members 1) Hitoshi KIHARA, D. Sc., Director, National Institute of Genetics 2) Kosuke YAMASHITA, D. Ag., Professor, Biological Laboratory, Kyoto University 3) Masatake TANAKA, D. Ag., Assistant Prof. Faculty of Agr., Kyoto University 4) Sadao SAKAMOTO, D. Ag., Researcher, National Institute of Genetics 2. Objects The aim of the expedition is to continue our work on the origin of wheat carried out since many years in Japan, and to collect new materials urgently needed for the solution of many problems. In the Caucasus fifteen cultivated and wild wheats are known, including six endemic species. It is the most important region from the view point of the origin of cultivated wheats. Also, many wild wheat relatives are expected to be abundant there. Two successful earlier Japanese botanical expeditions have been undertaken from the same view point. In 1955 the "Scientific Expedition to the Karakoram and Hindukush (K.U.S.E. 1955)" was organized by Dr. H. KIHARA as its leader. During this expedition various cultivated forms of wheat and Aegilops species were collected in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran. Particularly, the distribution and variations of Aegilops squarrosa, the donor of D genome to bread wheat ( Triticum aestivum ), were exhaustively investigated. The secound expedition, " Botanical Mission of the University of Kyoto to the Eastern Mediterranean Countries ", led by Dr. K. YAMASHITA was sent in 1959 ( B.M.U.K. 1959 ). Its chief aim was the study of the distribution and differentiation in Eastern Mediterranean countries of the Sitopsis section of Ae gilops, especially Ae. speltoides, the putative donor of B genome to emmer and bread wheats. Based on the results of those two expeditions covering Central Asia and the Mediterranean countries, it became imperative to send a botanical mission to the Caucasus in order to resolve newly arisen problems. As the new trends in the breeding of wheat, the collection of living materials became also important for the preservation of various genotypic and plasmatic characters. |
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