STARCH PASTING PROPERTIES AND GENETIC-RELATIONSHIPS OF WHEAT CULTIVARS IMPORTANT TO VICTORIAN WHEAT BREEDING

Starch quality, particularly high paste viscosity, is important in pro ducing marketable wheat for several end uses. Peak starch paste viscos ity was measured for 65 wheat cultivars significant to Victorian wheat breeding. Coefficients of kinship were calculated between these culti vars to assess their genetic relationships. In terms of paste viscosit y, 15 of the 20 highest ranking cultivars were related. Currawa, a cul tivar released in 1912, was the common ancestor and proposed source of high paste viscosity in this family of cultivars, which included the currently grown cultivar, Rosella. Most cultivars in the lower rank we re closely related to WW15, which is a semi-dwarf parent from CIMMYT t hat was used extensively in Australian breeding programs in the past t wo decades. This survey provides information for choosing parental mat erial for starch quality improvement and offers an explanation for the decrease in peak viscosity of modern Australian cultivars.