Relationship between relative water content during reproductive development and winter wheat grain yield

Summary Water is often the most limiting factor to winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) production in the southern Great Plains of the U.S.A., yet the lack of reliable screening criteria has precluded direct selection for drought resistance in breeding programs. Previous work showed that leaf relative water content (RWC) was highly heritable when measured under field-drought conditions, but its adoption as a screening tool for yield improvement requires further investigation of the genetic relationship between grain yield and RWC. Plants representing high and low yield potential under drought stress, and a random group of plants, were selected from an F₂ population having the pedigree, TAM W-101/Sturdy. Two sets of entries, each comprised of the two parents and 24 F₂-derived lines, were evaluated under a rainshelter in the F₃ (1986) and F₄ (1987) generations to determine differences in leaf RWC during reproductive development. One set of entries did not receive any water after the jointing stage, and the other set was grown under well-watered conditions. A positive relationship was observed between grain yield and RWC measured during anthesis and mid-grain fill, as the high-yield selections maintained a significantly higher RWC than the low-yield selections. Grain yield and RWC were also positively associated among random selections segregating for both traits. Subsequent adjustment of genotype means for differences in reproductive development at time of sampling underscored the need to consider differences in maturity when RWC is the selection criterion.     

A test of supposed mutants for stem rust resistance in wheat

Summary Eight stem rust (Puccinia graminis tritici Eriks. and Henn.) resistant lines (designated TICENA lines) that had been selected by Veiga et al. (1981) following gamma radiation of BH-1146 wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) were studied. Six of the lines were resistant to race 15B-1 of stem rust and susceptible to race 56, and proved to carry the gene Sr7a. TICENA 4 carries two unidentified genes, each giving resistance to one of the two races. TICENA 10 carries Sr6, Sr7a and an unidentified gene giving resistance to race 56 but not 15B-1. The results raise doubts about the supposed origin of the lines as mutants.     

Geographic distribution of Vrn-genes in landraces and improved varieties of spring bread wheat

Summary A study of the global Vrn-genes distribution supports the hypothesis that these loci have different breeding values. Evident zonal differences were discovered in percentage of dominant Vrn-genes and genotypes between the sets of varieties from various locations. For the same zone analogous differences were not so manifested between the sets of local and improved varieties. It showed the similar environmental fitness of those sets as a result of natural or artificial selection. Obvious changes in distribution of Vrn-genes were discovered in the history of breeding. Within this century the dominant Vrn3 was introgressed into many modern varieties of countries close to the equator. The main direction of such introgression ran from the Japanese landrace Akakomugi to Italian varieties. Later it came from Italy through Mentana to Mexican semidwarf varieties, and the last ones (especially Sonora 64 and Lerma Rojo 64) promoted wide distribution of that gene all over the world.     

Simplified culture method of detached ears and its application to vernalization in wheat

Summary The effects of the addition of sulfurous acid into culture solution and of cold treatment of the solution were examined to simplify the culture of detached wheat ears. In the simplified method, detached ears could be cultured at room temperature on the liquid medium containing 100 g/l sucrose and 0.075% sulfurous acid without any sterilization. The immature seeds in detached ears cultured by this method were treated with low temperature or with chemicals known to have vernalizing effect. The chemical treatment did not affect the chilling requirement of immature embryos, although photoperiodic response and narrow-sense earliness were reduced by kinetin and trypsin. The low temperature treatment drastically affected the chilling requirement, and fully vernalized mature seeds having normal germinability were obtained by treating the detached ears in culture with low temperature from 10 days after anthesis.     

Genomic Relationships of Triticum sharonense with Other S-Genome Diploid Triticum Species

Triticum sharonense was hybridized with autotetra-ploid T. speltoides, T. longissimum and T. bicorne. Meiotic analysis of these hybrids showed that T. sharonense is almost equally related to both T. speltoidcs and T. longissimum, while it is comparatively distant from T. bicorne. Therefore, this study does not support treating T. sharonense as a subspeies or variety of T. lottgissimum.     

Relationship Between Gluten Strength and Glutenin Proteins in Durum Wheat Cultivars

An electrophoretic study of gliadin and glutenin proteins, mainly low-molecular-weight (LMW) Glutenin Subunits, was undertaken to investigate possible assoeiations between these proteins and gluten strength. Thirty-eight durum wheat cultivars having different origins and currently grown in Spam were analysed. Different electrophoretic methods were used to analyse the seed storage proteins. Protein grain content was estimated and gluten strength was measured by the SDS-sedimentation test. New patterns for LMW glutenins were observed. Besides the known patterns of LMW-1, associated with γ-gliadin 42, and LMW-2 associated with γ-gliadin 45, six cultivars had LMW-2^? associated with γ-gliadin 43, one cultivar showed LMW-2* associated with γ-gliadin 44, and another cultivar, null for γ-42 and γ-45, had LMW-1^?. Significant differences for gluten strength were found among groups of cultivars with different LMW patterns. High molecular weight glutenins were found in general to be poor indicators of viscoelastic properties, although band 20 showed a negative influence on quality. The results are discussed in relation to development ol cultivars with good gluten strength.     

Ertragsstruktur alter und neuer Winterweizensorten unter dem Aspekt der Einlagerung und Remobilisation von Fruktanen im Weizenhalm

Yield components in old and new german winter wheat varieties with respect to the storage and remobilization of fructan in the wheat stem
Yield components and changes in carbohydrate content of four old german winter wheat varieties, bred before 1950, were compared with six new varieties over two years in field trials. In both years the old varieties built up more biomass than the new varieties. In the latter a better harvest-index (0,56) as compared to the old varieties (0,43) was obtained, resulting in higher grain yields for the new varieties. Changes in water-soluble carbohydrate (WSC) content were mainly due to variations in fructan content. Maximum of fructan content was mostly reached at the stage of early milk ripeness. In the new varieties a faster and more complete remobilization of fructan occurred; especially in the year with the short grainfilling period.     

Combined use of gliadins and SSRs to analyse the genetic variability of the Spanish collection of cultivated diploid wheat (Triticum monococcum L. ssp. monococcum)

This work studied the combined use of gliadins and SSRs to analyse inter- and intra-accession variability of the Spanish collection of cultivated einkorn (Triticum monococcum L. ssp. monococcum) maintained at the CRF-INIA. In general, gliadin loci presented higher discrimination power than SSRs, reflecting the high variability of the gliadins. The loci on chromosome 6A were the most polymorphic with similar PIC values for both marker systems, showing that these markers are very useful for genetic variability studies in wheat. The gliadin results indicated that the Spanish einkorn collection possessed high genetic diversity, being the differentiation large between varieties and small within them. Some associations between gliadin alleles and geographical and agro-morphological data were found. Agro-morphological relations were also observed in the clusters of the SSRs dendrogram. A high concordance was found between gliadins and SSRs for genotype identification. In addition, both systems provide complementary information to resolve the different cases of intra-accession variability not detected at the agro-morphological level, and to identify separately all the genotypes analysed. The combined use of both genetic markers is an excellent tool for genetic resource evaluation in addition to agro-morphological evaluation.     

A reciprocal F1 monosomic analysis of the genetic control of time of ear emergence,number of leaves and number of spikelets in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

Summary A reciprocal F₁ monosomic analysis of chromosomal differences between Spica and Bersée was carried out under controlled environment conditions. Chromosomes associated with differences in days to ear emergence, number of leaves and number of spikelets were identified. The results indicated that chromosome 2B of Spica carries a photoperiod insensitivity allele at the Ppd ₂ locus. Both Spica and Bersée appear to have a vernalization insensitity allele at the Vrn ₂ locus on chromosome 5B. On chromosome 3A, 4B, 4D and 6B factors were found with major effects on earliness per se, diffeences in ear emergence and number of spikelets which were independent of photoperiod and vernalization. The possibility that these factors influence growth rate is discussed.