A STUDY TO INCORPORATE HIGH PROTEIN CONTENT FROM TETRAPLOID WHEAT (T. turgidum dicoccoides) TO HEXAPLOID WHEAT (T. aestivum vulgare)

Abstract

Grain protein content of wheat is important for bread making and pasta quality. Wild tetraploid wheat (Triticum turgidum L. var. dicoccoides) has some genes for high protein content as a promising source. Three winter wheat cultivars of Colorado (Halt, Yuma, Akron) and one experimental line (CO99508) and one accession of T. dicoccoides were crossed to obtain backcrosses. The objective of this study was to determine higher protein content, SDSsedimentation and hardiness values in backcrosses T. aestivum x T. dicoccoides. Analysis of variance showed that highly significant differences were found among parents and backcrosses. The minimum and maximum values of grain protein content of all backcross populations changed from low protein parents (bread wheat cultivars) to high protein parent (T. dicoccoides). This increase in grain protein content of backcrosses is most likely due to the transferring of the high protein genes from the T. dicoccoides to the hexaploid cultivars. Although T. dicoccoides has high grain protein content, bread making quality of T. dicoccoides has lower than bread wheat cultivars. This situation has also been observed in all backcross populations. However, based on the results of this study, it could be concluded that high protein genes in the wild tetraploid wheat (T. dicoccoides) could possibly be transferred to the bread wheat cultivars.