PLANT CYTOGENETICS AT THE DAWN OF THE 21ST-CENTURY

The years 1996-1997 saw advances in plant chromosome handling, structu re, behaviour and manipulation. Improved protocols were developed for flow sorting, microdissection and microcloning. Fibre FISH was used to map a range of DNA sequences at a resolution of a few kilobases. Over 400 wheat deletion stocks were reported and healing of broken chromos omes by de novo addition of telomeric sequences was demonstrated. Cent romeric DNA sequences were identified. The role of telomeric ends in p airing was demonstrated. Apparently unusually long chromosome arms can interfere with mitosis. Novel phenomena and potential of wide hybrids for genome analysis were noteworthy.