Four methods for detecting 1BL.1RS translocations in bread wheat have been compared in 59 Yugoslav winter wheat cultivars: N-banding of mitotic metaphase chromosomes, sodium lactate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis at pH 3.1, sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis under non-reducing conditions, and a recently characterised protein, subtilisin inhibitor, separated by isoelectric focusing. N-banding was much the most labour intensive method, and, of the three electrophoretic methods, we recommend the use of subtilisin inhibitor, which is at least as easy to interpret as the other two methods, and is often faster for screening purposes. The sources of the 1BL.1RS translocation in this material are cultivars Avrora, Kavkaz and Skorospelka 35, which have been extensively used as parents in Yugoslav wheat breeding programmes. Out of 59 cultivars that include a line carrying the 1BL.1RS translocation in their pedigree, 23 of them did not carry the translocation; thus the effect on plant phenotype of the translocations is insufficient to guarantee its selection during breeding.
