Advance in Dasypyrum villosum a valuable wild species used in wheat improvement

It is one of the most important and effective ways for wheat improvement to transfer the useful gene of the relative genus of Triticum into wheat. Dasypyrum villosum is a valuable wild species commonly used in wheat improvement. The article is an attempt to summarize available information about karyotype and chromosome banding pattern in D.villosum, the relationships between D.villosum and T.aestivum, hybridization of D.villosum and T.aestivum, and potentially useful traits of D.villosum used in wheat improvement. D.villosum possesses many important agronomic traits, such as resistance to many main wheat diseases, winter hardiness, vigorous tilling ability, multispikelets, high grain protein content and salt and drought tolerance. Therefore, it is a valuable wild gene resource for wheat improvement. Until now, a great achievement has been made in transferring beneficial genes of D.villosum into wheat through developing addition line, substitution line and translocation line of D.villosum to wheat. The investigations using molecular RAPD, AFLP, SSR, RFLP, STS markers and GISH (genome in situ hybridization) on D.villosum itself and hybridization with Triticum are summarized. Chromosomal localization of the potentially useful traits and chromosomal position of some morphological and isozyme markers of D.villosum are shown. This information will be benefit for farther exploitation and utilization of D.villosum in wheat improvement