Tunisia is considered as a diversification centre of durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf.) and barely (Hordeum vulgare). It is characterised by large genetic diversity; however, several genotypes are in the process of disappearance. The safeguard and rehabilitatation of this genetic inheritance requires genetic characterisation, evaluation and in-situ and ex-situ conservation. In this context, a l...

The Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici (Pgt) Ug99 race group is virulent to most stem rust resistance genes currently deployed in wheat and poses a threat to global wheat production. The durum wheat (Triticum turgidum ssp. durum) gene Sr13 confers resistance to Ug99 and other virulent races, and is more effective at high temperatures. Using map-based cloning, we delimited a candidate region inclu...

Plant regeneration studies in cereals have been undertaken in immature embryos, scutellum and also in immature inflorescence tissue. The wheat mature embryos can also be employed for callusing and regeneration, as they are available throughout the year and have presently been employed for transformation studies. An efficient and reproducible method for Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of m...

Young coleoptiles of wheat (Triticum durum var. Henry), depleted of amyloplast starch by incubation at 30 degrees C with gibberellin plus kinetin, retained their geotropic responsiveness. Depleted coleoptiles curved upward more slowly than controls, but this was commensurate with their slower growth. The ratio of curvature to growth was about 50 degrees per mm of elongation in both cases. Newly...

Soil gravel content affects many soil physical properties, as well as crop yield. Little is known regarding the influence of soil gravel content on growth and nutrient uptake of durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf.). The accumulation of nitrogen and phosphorous during the vegetative and reproductive periods and the contribution of pre-anthesis assimilates to grain N and P content have been evaluat...

Wheat (Triticum aestivum, Triticum durum) grains were excised immediately following fertilization and cultured until maturity. A rachis fragment attached to the grain was required to ensure an increase in grain size for the first 10 days following fertilization. A (14)C-labeling study revealed that 8-day-old grains accumulated more dry matter into the ethanol-insoluble fraction when grown on ag...

Maydup ML, Antonietta M, Guiamet JJ, Graciano C, Lopez JR, Tambussi EA. 2010. The contribution of ear photosynthesis to grain filling in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). Field Crops Research 119, 48–58. Motzo R, Giunta F. 2002. Awnedness affects grain yield and kernel weight in near-isogenic lines of durum wheat. Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 53, 1285–1293. Rebetzke GJ, Bonnett...

Genetic differences among major types of wheat are well characterized; however, little is known about how these distinctions affect the small molecule profile of the wheat seed. Ethanol/water (65% v/v) extracts of seed from 45 wheat lines representing 3 genetically distinct classes, tetraploid durum (Triticum turgidum subspecies durum) (DW) and hexaploid hard and soft bread wheat (T. aestivum s...

The expansion of the world's population requires the development of high production agriculture. For this purpose, it is essential to identify target points conditioning crop responsiveness to predicted [CO2]. The aim of this study was to determine the relevance of ear sink strength in leaf protein and metabolomic profiles and its implications in photosynthetic activity and yield of durum wheat...

Durum wheat (Triticum turgidum L. subsp. durum Desf.) Line 149 contains two novel major genes for excluding Na(+) from leaf blades, named Nax1 and Nax2. The genes were separated into families containing a single gene and near-isogenic homozygous lines were selected. Lines containing either Nax1 or Nax2 had lower rates of Na(+) transport from roots to shoots than their near-isogenic pairs due to...