INTRODUCTION TO BREAD WHEAT (TRITICUM-AESTIVUM L) AND ASSESSMENT FOR BREAD-MAKING QUALITY OF ALLELES FROM TRITICUM-BOEOTICUM BOISS SSP THAOUDAR AT GLU-A1 ENCODING 2 HIGH-MOLECULAR-WEIGHT SUBUNITS OF GLUTENIN

Two alleles, Glu-A1r encoding high-molecular-weight (HMW) glutenin sub units 39+40 and Glu-Als encoding HMW glutenin subunits 41+42, were int rogressed to bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cv. Sicco from two acc essions of T. boeoticum Boiss. ssp. thaoudar (A genome species, 2n=2x= 14). Alleles at Glu-A1 in current commercial bread wheats encode zero or one subunit, and alleles at the homoeoloci Glu-BI and Glu-D1 encode a maximum of two subunits; hence the maximum number of subunits found in commercial wheats is five, whereas the lines incorporating Glu-A1r and Glu-A1s carry six. Using near-isogenic lines, the current results demonstrated that the introduction of Glu-A1r- resulted in diminished dough stickiness and improved stability during mixing compared with G lu-Ala encoding subunit 1, and a small improvement in gluten strength as shown by the SDS-sedimentation test. The introduction of Glu-A1s al so resulted in a small improvement in gluten strength predicted by the SDS-sedimentation test. Thus the alleles are of potential value in br eeding programmes designed to improve bread-making quality.