Abstract
Durum wheat grains (Triticum turgidum L. ssp. durum) are the main source for the production of pasta, bread and a variety of products consumed worldwide. The quality of pasta is mainly defined by the rheological properties of gluten, an elastic network in wheat endosperms formed of gliadins and glutenins. In this study, the allelic variation at five glutenin loci was analysed in 196 durum wheat genotypes. Two loci (Glu-A1 and Glu-B1), encoding for high-molecular-weight glutenin subunits (HMW-GS), and three loci (Glu-B2, Glu-A3 and Glu-B3), encoding for low molecular weight glutenin subunits (LMW-GS), were assessed by SDS-PAGE. The SDS-sedimentation test was used and the grain protein content was evaluated. A total of 32 glutenin subunits and 41 glutenin haplotypes were identified. Four novel alleles were detected. Fifteen haplotypes represented 85.7% of glutenin loci variability. Some haplotypes carrying the 7 + 15 and 7 + 22 banding patterns at Glu-B1 showed a high gluten strength similar to those that carried the 7 + 8 or 6 + 8 alleles. A decreasing trend in grain protein content was observed over the last 85 years. Allelic frequencies at the three main loci (Glu-B1, Glu-A3 and Glu-B3) changed over the 1915–2020 period. Gluten strength increased from 1970 to 2020 coinciding with the allelic changes observed. These results offer valuable information for glutenin haplotype-based selection for use in breeding programs.
Highlights
IntroductionDurum wheat grains (Triticum turgidum L. ssp. durum Desf. Husn) are widely consumed all around the world as an important part of the diet in several countries
The total evaluated plant material consisted of 196 durum wheat accessions (Triticum turgidum L. ssp. durum), mostly representative of the Argentinian breeding programs (85), and including accessions from Italy (33), Chile (26), France (21), West Africa and North Asia (WANA) (17), CIMMYT (10) and the USA (4) (Supplementary Table S1)
A total of 32 glutenin subunits from five evaluated loci were identified in the collection (Table 1)
Summary
Durum wheat grains (Triticum turgidum L. ssp. durum Desf. Husn) are widely consumed all around the world as an important part of the diet in several countries. Pasta is an important part of the food produced and consumed in Latin America. In Argentina, the consumption of pasta is 8.54 kg per capita per year, the seventh-highest in the world [2], with a durum wheat growing area of 129,255 ha during the crop season 2020/21, which is comparatively smaller than the area occupied by other cereals and oil crops, it represents the greatest planted area in Latin America. Until the 1970s, Argentina exported high-quality durum wheat mainly to Italy [3]. Grain quality decreased during the green revolution with the introduction of semi-dwarf wheat from CIMMYT, mainly due to an increase in Fusarium susceptibility, which caused a reduction in both the production area and exports
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