WHEAT SPECIES COLLECTION IN THE SERVICE O F GENETICISTS AND BREEDERS

Due to the ever greater requirements which must be satisfied by cultiv ated plant varieties and hybrids, breeders have made great efforts to incorporate the most efficient genes determining important agronomic p roperties environmental stress resistance and quality into new genotyp es. There is, however, a danger that the wide-ranging use of genetic s ources of indentical origin will lead to an ever greater similarity be tween new plant varieties developed in various countries, with a conse quent reduction in genetic diversity and a genetic impoverishment of t he cultivated varieties. There is thus every justification for the dev elopment of a wheat species collection in the Agricultural Research In stitute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. In recent years, genetic , biochemical and physiological experiments have already been conducte d in the institute on species belonging to the Triticum genus. Hybridi sation using wild species bearing traits useful in wheat breeding also has a long tradition. The institute's gene bank currently contains no t only 3150 varieties, but also 1299 wheat genotypes and other cereal species (Agropyron, Hordeum, Avena, Secale, Haynaldia etc.), together with genetically valuable stocks developed in the institute or obtaine d for research purposes from foreign gene banks. In addition to collec ting and storing gene cources and to indentifying and classifying cere al species, the gene bank is involved in the preparation of a catalogu e containing the major morphological and economic properties of the sp ecies, together with spike photographs and the electrophoretic spectra of the storage proteins.