| History of the development of some presently promising
hexaploid Triticales B. Charles JENKINS Jenkins Foundation for Research, Salinas, California 93901, U.S.A. The important cereal grain crops such as wheat, rice, corn, oats, barley and rye used as food or feed, originated many thousands of years ago. They have all been improved by man, particularly in recent years, but even with these improvements there is a growing concern about being able to feed the rapidly increasing populations of the world. Very recently an entirely new cereal grain crop has come into being which appears to have the potential of producing more yield per unit of land area than any of these cereals. The following chronological listing of events gives a personal viewpoint of the significant factors leading to this development: 1. Observation in the late 1800's of a fertile amphiploid from the combination of bread wheat and rye by the German plant breeder, RIMPAU. 2. Independent but simultaneous discovery in 1918 of the correct chromosome numbers in wheat by SAX in the United States and SAKAMURA in Japan followed by extensive studies of genome relationships among wheat and related plants by KIHARA and associates in Japan. 3. Discovery in 1937 that the drug, colchicine, acts as a polyploidizing agent when applied to living plant tissues. 4. Concentration of work beginning in 1938, particularly by MUNTZING in Sweden, on the octoploid form of Triticale (6x wheat x rye). 5. Development and use of embryo culture techniques during the late 1940's. 6. Production, early in the 1950's of hexaploid Triticales (4x wheats x rye) by SANCHEZMONGE in Spain, O'MARA in the United States, NAKAJIMA in Japan and KISS in Hungary. 7. Observation by B. C. JENKINS in 1953 at Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, of O'MARA'S wheat-rye amphiploid from "Carelton" durum wheat and spring rye initiating the desire to exploit the apparent potential of this new species. 8. Appointment of B. C. JENKINS in 1954 to a privately endowed research chair in the Department of Plant Science, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, enabling him to concentrate on a study of wheat and related species, combining basic and applied research. 9. Development, together with the introduction from many countries of a large collection of Triticales as a basis for a breeding program with the new crop. 10. Viewing, by participants attending the First International Wheat Genetics Symposium held at the University of Manitoba in August, 1958, of a "living herbarium" including Triticales-a first opportunity for some scientists to become acquainted with this crop. 11. Request for material for distilling by SEAGRAM'S of Canada in 1959, and later their sponsoring field increases of Triticale for commercial evaluation, providing a stimulus for an accelerated program of improvement. |
| --> Next |