| Report of a joint expedition through Turkey to collect
species of the Triticinae-under the auspices of the University of
California, U.S.A., Kungl. Skogs-och Lantbruksakademien of Sweden and The
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations B. L. JOHNSON and Ove HALL Recent research by the writers suggests that the method of protein electrophoresis provides a new approach to the study of evolution which promises to be especially effective in clarifying genome relationships and species origins in polyploid series. For this reason as early as January 1964 an expedition to Turkey was planned to collect material for a comprehensive study of evolution in the amphiploid series of Triticum and Aegilops. Funds to support this expedition were provided by the University of California Agricultural Experiment Station and Kungl. Skogs-och Lantbruksakademien of Sweden. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations entered into the plans through the efforts of Professor Hermann KUCKUCK, Project Manager, United Nations Special Fund, Crop Research and Introduction Centre, Izmir, Turkey. Dr. Basri DEVECIOGLU, Co-manager, joined the expedition as the representative of FAO which also provided a Toyota Land Cruiser with a driver. These provisions proved to be indispensable to the success of the excursion. The expedition left headquarters in Izmir on July 27, 1965 and travelled via Cardak, Konya, and Adana to Gaziantep. This portion of the route passed through territory covered in recent explorations for Triticum and Aegilops by Dr. Daniel ZOHARY of Israel. From Urfa through Diyarbakier and Bitlis to Tatvan the route passed through an area from whichi, to our knowledge, no previous collection of Triticinae is available, but which yielded many. species of importance to genetic research and the breeding of wheat. The route from Tatvan through Agri, Dogubayazit and Kars to Erzurum continued through territory not represented by known collections. This area yielded valuable collections of Secale at high elevations and a few species of Aegilops at lower elevations. On the return trip from Erzurum through Elazier, Malatya, Kayseri, Ankara, Afyon and Denizli to Izmir most if not all the endemic species of Aegilops were collected as well as Triticum and Secale. The expedition terminated in Izmir on August 15. 1965, having covered about 5700 km and having made 241 seed collections. Evidence from conventional methods suggests that Ae. speltoides or Ae. bicornis is the donor of the B genome to tetraploid and hexaploid wheats. Electrophoretic studies of the materials heretofore available throw some doubt upon this conclusion. However, the great variability of the Ae. speltoides complex including Ae. ligustica and Ae. sharonensis, suggests that variation within this group must be considered before final conclusions can be drawn. The abundance of material of Ae. speltoides and Ae. ligustica obtained in the present expedition will be invaluable to the solution of this problem. |
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