Inheritance of SDS sedimentation volume of flour in crosses of winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

Abstract

In wheat breeding, the selection for good flour quality requires methods of quality testing which can be carried out quickly on small samples, for example the SDS test. The objectives of the present study were to determine the heritability of the flour SDS sedimentation volume in generations F1, F2 and F3 of 4 crosses of 3 Hungarian and 4 North American winter wheat varieties. The dominance of a variety with a lower sedimentation volume was generally observed in generation F1, but the means for generations F2 and F3 of crosses were similar to their midparent values. The heterosis depended on the crop-year and plant density, too. For two crosses, the heritability (h2) and gene number could be estimated via the means and variances for different generations. The heritability estimates in a broad sense (h2b) of the combinations Gb/Andr and Be/WA were 0.56 and 0.63, respectively, which imply a rather good heritability. The h2 values in narrow sense were 0.50 and 0.35, respectively; these were quite good estimates, since the quality is strongly affected by environmental factors. It was assumed that the SDS sedimentation test can be used as an effective tool of selection for bread-making quality. Gene number estimations indicate that the differences in the SDS sedimentation volumes of the parents of these two combinations are caused by one gene.