Assessing end-use quality traits in winter wheat germplasm with novel seed storage protein introgressions from diploid and tetraploid wild relatives

Project Summary:

Breadmaking and milling properties of wheat are defined by low molecular weight (LMW) and high molecular weight (HMW) glutenins and gliadins. The main goal of this project is to broaden genetic diversity of gluten-encoding loci in wheat using alleles from wild relatives and evaluate their effects on end-use quality traits. Previously, we have developed introgression populations of wild emmer and A. tauschii in winter wheat and identified lines carrying introgression of multiple alleles from wild relatives at the HMW and LMW glutenin and gliadin loci. Here, we will use kompetitive allele specific PCR (KASP) markers developed for each of these loci to identify heterozygous lines and create heterogeneous inbred families (HIFs) and lines with shortened introgression segments for each allele of the HMW glutenin encoding genes. The effects of wild relative gene introgression on traits affecting baking quality will be evaluated. This project addresses priority area related to identifying novel traits in the wild wheat collections that can improve wheat flour functionality, increase overall processing efficiency, and improve wheat-based product quality.