Achievement by Breeding of Winter Wheat Varieties with Improved Bread-Making Quality

Abstract

The bread-making quality of wheat depends on the grain protein content and composition, which is accompanying with yield depression. Our research, demonstrated that only a small part of protein variation can be explained by variation of yield (r 2 = 0,128), which provide a solid evidence that simultaneous progress in breeding for elevated protein and grain yield is possible. The genotype x environment interaction was made by ANOVA and permitted the estimation of percentage contributions of different sources of variance involved in phenotypic expression of wheat bread-making quality parameters. Indeed, the heritability coefficients were small for protein content (H=0,37), but large enough for sedimentation index (H=0,89), gluten content (H=0,66), deformation index (H=0,52), and loaf volume (H=0,58). By using of high quality genotypes as parents for crosses in the wheat-breeding program at Agricultural Research Station Turda, we have released in the last 10 years, three quality improved winter wheat varieties (Apullum, Turda 95, and Turda 2000). Also, some new promising high quality lines (T51-97, T53-97, and T95-97) that combine superior agronomical characteristics and acceptable productivity with excellent gluten properties have been developed.