The introduction into bread wheat of a major gene for resistance to powdery mildew from wild emmer wheat

Summary A new source of resistance to wheat powdery mildew caused by Erysiphe graminis has been transferred to hexaploid bread wheat, Triticum aestivum, from the wild tetraploid wheat, Triticum dicoccoides. The donor was crossed to bread wheat and the pentaploid progeny was then self-pollinated. Plants having a near stable hexaploid chromosome complement were selected in the F₃ progeny and topcrossing and backcrossing of these to a second wheat cultivar to improve the phenotype was undertaken. Monosomic analysis of early backcross lines showed the transferred gene to be located on chromosome 4A. The gene has been designated Pm16.