Chromosome morphology and cytomolecular characteristics of the perennial rye cultivar ‘Kriszta’

The perennial Secale cereanum cultivar ‘Kriszta’ is an artificial hybrid of S. cereale and S. strictum ssp. anatolicum . From the cross between the wheat line Mv9kr1 and ‘Kriszta’, which aimed the transfer of beneficial traits from rye to wheat, numerous translocation lines have been produced. For the identification of the translocated chromosomes, the unambiguous differentiation between chromosome arms of ‘Kriszta’ is essential. The identification of its short chromosome arms using conventional FISH probes is easy, but because of their similar hybridization patterns, its long arms cannot be distinguished. The present study aimed to create the detailed karyotype of ‘Kriszta’, especially that of long arms, by both chromosome measurements and FISH using highly repetitive, as well as subtelomeric tandem repeat, and synthetic microsatellite DNA sequences. Our results indicate that the chromosome complement of ‘Kriszta’ is not a simple combination of the chromosomes of the parental rye species but is composed of rearranged chromosomes. It is also showed that an adequate pair-wise combination of the DNA sequences pSc119.2, pSc200, pSc250, and (AAC) 5 makes it possible to identify any of the long arms of S. cereanum cv. Kriszta chromosomes. The future usability of the identified wheat- ‘Kriszta’ translocated chromosomes is also discussed.