Plants of Triticum aestivum (2n = 6x = 42) ditelocentric 5BL were treated with EMS in order to produce mutations in the 5B system by which meiotic pairing between homoeologous chromosomes is normally prevented. To check for the occurrence of mutation T. aestivum ditelo-5BL plants were pollinated with rye (Secale cereale 2n = 14) and meiosis was examined in the resulting hybrids.

Wheat-rye hybrids were scored for the presence of mutants when the wheat parents were either the EMS-treated wheat plants, or their selfed derivatives, or their progenies obtained after pollination with untreated euploid individuals.

Mutants were detected by each of these procedures and mutant gametes were produced by the treated ditelocentric plants with frequencies between 1·5 and 2·5%, but there were differences between the mutants in the extent to which homoeologous pairing occurred in the derived wheat-rye hybrids. The differences may have resulted from the occurrence of mutation at different loci or to different extents at the same locus.

Two mutants, Mutant 10/13 and Mutant 61, were fixed in the homozygous condition. Mutant 10/13 was made homozygous both in the 5BL ditelocentric and in the euploid conditions but these genotypes regularly formed 21 bivalents at meiosis, and there was no indication of homoeologous pairing although the mutant 10/13 gave rise to homoeologous pairing in wheat-rye hybrids.