Proceedings of the XLVI Italian Society of Agricultural Genetics - SIGA Annual Congress

Giardini Naxos, Italy - 18/21 September, 2002

ISBN 88-900622-3-1

Poster Abstract - 4.04

VARIATION FOR YIELD AND QUALITY COMPONENTS IN DURUM WHEAT INBRED BACKCROSS LINES DERIVED FROM VAR. DICOCCOIDES

BLANCO A., GADALETA A.

Dipartimento di Biologia e Chimica Agro-Forestale ed Ambientale, Università degli Studi, Bari

durum wheat, backcross inbred lines, grain yield, protein content

The use of wild germoplasm as a source of quantitative trait allelic variation is important for crop improvement and breeders. The wild tetraploid wheat Triticum turgidum var. dicoccoides shows particular promise as a donor of useful genetic variation for several traits, including disease resistance, drought tolerance, yield components, protein quantity and quality. The effectiveness of the inbred backcross method for introgressing quantitative traits from the var. dicoccoides acc. MG29896 into durum wheat cv. Latino was examined. An inbred backcross population at BC₃ level was developed and tested at two levels of selfing over years (BC₃F₇ in 2000 and BC₃F₉ in 2001) at two locations (Valenzano and Gaudiano) for grain yield per area, grain yield per spike, 1000 kernel weight, kernels per spike, grain protein content. Variation among inbred lines (BIL) in yield and quality components was observed. Significant line x year interaction suggest that genotype x environment effects may be important for every traits. Large phenotypic correlations between grain yield components and between yield components and protein content were estimated. Inbred lines with significant higher values than the recurrent parent cv. Latino have been identified for each quantitative trait. The BIL lines and the information gathered during this study will be useful for mapping novel alleles for agriculturally important quantitative traits and will be exploited to formulate strategies for producing elite durum lines by marker assisted selection.