Speciation of Wild Tetraploid Wheats and Their Susceptibility to Leaf Rust

The authors attempted to study the origin and phylogenetical differentiation of tetraploid wheats by analyzing the relationship between higher plants and their parasites, i. e., host-parasite interacton. As the first step, in order to study the phylogenetical relationships of wild tetraploid wheats, the intraspecific variation in susceptibility and geographical distribution were analyzed by evaluating the susceptibility of the plants to leaf rust ("Mesopotamia race", which was isolated at Sulaymaniya, IRAQ). The distribution area of wild tetraploid wheats is divided into three geographical regions : Palestine, Transcaucasus and Mesopotarnia. The wild tetraploid wheats native to Palestine and Transcaucasus belonged to Triticum dicocoides and T.araraticum, respectively. On the other hand, those native to Mesopotamia consisted of two species, i.e., both T.dicoccoides and T.araraticum.