Technological Quality of Dual-purpose Wheat Submitted to Successive Defoliations

Giselle R Rodolfo,Deivid L V Stefen,Luiz C Gutkoski,Clovis A Souza

doi:10.5539/jas.v12n1p95

Abstract

Defoliation may interfere in the sink-source relationship and influence grain production and the respective technological quality of wheat flour, particularly in cultivars with potential as forage and in subsequent grain production. This study aimed to determine the effects of plant cutting heights and number of cuttings on the technological wheat flour quality of BRS Umbu and BRS Tarum&atilde; cultivars. A completely randomized design with four repetitions was used and treatments consisted of a combination of cutting heights (20 and 30 cm) and number of cuttings (no cutting, 1, 2 and 3 cuttings), resulting in the following treatments: 20/1, 20/2, 20/3 30/1, 30/2, 30/3 and controls with no cuttings. Hectoliter weight, grain crude protein, tenacity: extensibility ratio, gluten strength, falling number and wet gluten were measured. Regardless of the cutting height used, and after defoliation, the variables exhibited higher values than in non-defoliated plants, with protein content increasing by 6 and 11.3% for the BRS Tarum&atilde; and BRS Umbu cultivars, respectively. As such, it can be inferred that defoliation does not negatively affect the technological quality of wheat flour grown in a dual-purpose system.

Highlights

Wheat is one of the most widely used cereals in human food, primarily as a source of protein, and for this reason it is necessary to understand the mechanisms that determine and influence the quality of the grains and flour components produced (Moore et al, 2016)
Most of the results reported in the literature that use management practices involved parceled doses of nitrogen fertilizers, the application of growth regulators and their effects on the technological quality of wheat (Penckowski, Zagonel, & Fernandes, 2010; Gutkoski et al, 2011; Pinnow et al, 2013; Stefen et al, 2015)
Regardless of the cutting height used, protein content increasing with cuttings by and 11.3% for the BRS Tarumã and BRS Umbu cultivars, respectively, in the average growing seasons

Summary

Introduction

Wheat is one of the most widely used cereals in human food, primarily as a source of protein, and for this reason it is necessary to understand the mechanisms that determine and influence the quality of the grains and flour components produced (Moore et al, 2016). The technological quality of wheat is influenced by genetic, environmental and crop management factors (Franceschi et al, 2009; Denčić et al, 2011; Freo et al, 2011). Alterations such as defoliation undertaken in the vegetative and reproductive stages of crops may influence sink-source balance, reflecting in the amount and quality of the grains produced (Asseng et al, 2017). Wheat quality depends on the amount and quality of these proteins (Pomeranz, 1973), primarily the gluten-forming variety, which accounts for 80% of total proteins in the grain (Torbica et al, 2007), consisting of gliadin and glutenin

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