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ARS Home » Plains Area » Lincoln, Nebraska » Wheat, Sorghum and Forage Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #141738
Title: RELEASE OF NINETEEN WAXY SPRING WHEATS

Author
item Graybosch, Robert
item SOUZA, EDWARD - UNI OF IDAHO
item BERZONSKY, WILLIAM - ND STATE UNI
item BAENZIGER, P - UNI OF NEBRASKA
item McVey, Donald
item Chung, Okkyung

Submitted to: Crop Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/31/2003
Publication Date: 7/6/2004
Citation: Graybosch, R.A., Souza, E., Berzonsky, W., Baenziger, P.S., Mcvey, D.V., Chung, O.K. 2004. Release of nineteen waxy spring wheats. Crop Science. 44:1492-1493.

Interpretive Summary: Wheat is grown world-wide. It is adapted to climatic regions ranging from sub-tropical to near-boreal. Even though wheat as a species is widely distributed, wheats grown either as ancestral land-races of cultivars all are narrowly adapted. Thus, wheats from Asia can rarely be directly cultured in North America. Nonetheless, such wheats might carry specific genes of use to the North American wheat industry. This work describes the release of spring wheats, adapted to North American spring wheat growing regions, that carry important genes from Asian wheats. These genes condition the production of a modified type of starch known as waxy starch. Waxy starch has unique functional properties that might find novel application in the U.S. food and starch industries. The presence of waxy starch in spring wheat adapted to U.S. wheat growing environments will allow wheat breeders the opportunity to develop cultivars carrying this trait. This could, in turn, result in market diversification for wheat producers, with a concomitant increase in on-farm incomes.

Technical Abstract: Nineteen spring waxy (amylose-free) wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) germplasm lines were developed and released by the Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture, and the Nebraska Agricultural Experiment Station in cooperation with the Agricultural Experiment Stations of North Dakota and Idaho. Waxy wheats carry three non-functional (null) alleles (Wx-A1b, Wx-B1b and Wx-D1b) at the genetic loci encoding the enzyme granule-bound starch synthase (GBSS, EC 2.4.1.21) GBSS also is known as the ¿waxy¿ protein. Waxy wheats produce endosperm starch that is nearly devoid of amylose. Such starch confers unique functional properties to derived wheat flour. Suggested uses for waxy wheats include the production of modified food starches, a blending agent to create flours with optimal amylose concentration for the production of a variety of sheeted and baked food products, and as an animal feed. Waxy wheats also are useful as donors of the Wx null alleles, which may be used to develop partial waxy or reduced-amylose wheats. The presence of one or two such alleles can result in wheat flours with superior performance in certain food applications.