SCREENING LARGE POPULATIONS OF WHEAT HYBRIDS BY C-BANDING

The requirements of some experiments in wheat cytogenetics dictate scr eening of large populations of hybrids. Because cytogenetics is percei ved as tedious, such experiments may not be undertaken, or be limited in scale. This note describes a simplified C-banding procedure and the organization of work in a cytogenetic laboratory which permit screeni ng of 240-960 wheat plants per day. Depending on the level of motivati on and experience in cytology, this pace can be sustained over a perio d of several days to several weeks. However, at this pace of cytology, the development of populations for screening quickly becomes a new bo ttleneck.