Contemporary trends and perspectives of Chinese winter wheat breeding programs were explored using multiple alleles of gliadin (Gli) and glutenin (Glu)-coding loci as genetic markers. To estimate genetic diversity and specific features of Chinese cultivars, the allele frequencies and genetic diversity H in Chinese wheat pool were calculated and compared to those of cultivars from 11 regions of the world. Among all these cultivars the Chinese ones exhibited the highest allelic diversity of the Gli loci while showing relatively low genetic variability for the Glu loci. Most (96%) of the cultivars examined had unique Gli allele compositions, which enabled to differentiate these cultivars with high precision. Cluster analysis of the genetic distances among the wheats from different regions showed that the Chinese cultivars were close to Italian and Russian ones, sharing with them the common Gli alleles.Clustering of modern cultivars and that of cultivars bred 10-15 years ago was essentially the same. All cultivars from all of the countries examined were classified into three groups according to their quality based on their Glu allele compositions. The Chinese cultivars showed a moderate quality score of 7.0, which conforms to the quality evaluation based on SDS sedimentation. This quality proved to be insufficiently high as compared to cultivars from other countries. However, the genetic diversity estimation suggests that Chinese cultivars have a potential for quality improvement.

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Aegilops comosa Smith in Sibthorp et Smith, 1806 is diploid grass with MM genome constitution occurring mainly in Greece. Two morphologically distinct subspecies – Ae. c. comosa Chennaveeraiah, 1960 and Ae. c. heldreichii (Holzmann ex Boissier) Eig, 1929 are discriminated within Ae. comosa, however, genetic and karyotypic bases of their divergence are not fully understood. We used Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) with repetitive DNA probes and electrophoretic analysis of gliadins to characterize the genome and karyotype of Ae. comosa to assess the level of their genetic diversity and uncover mechanisms leading to radiation of subspecies. We show that two subspecies differ in size and morphology of chromosomes 3M and 6M, which can be due to reciprocal translocation. Subspecies also differ in the amount and distribution of microsatellite and satellite DNA sequences, the number and position of minor NORs, especially on 3M and 6M, and gliadin spectra mainly in the a-zone. Frequent occurrence of hybrids can be caused by open pollination, which, along with genetic heterogeneity of accessions and, probably, the lack of geographic or genetic barrier between the subspecies, may contribute to extremely broad intraspecific variation of GAAn and gliadin patterns in Ae. comosa, which are usually not observed in endemic plant species.