PROTEIN CONTENT, THOUSAND KERNEL WEIGHT (TKW) AND VOLUMETRIC MASS (VM) VARIABILITY IN A SET OF WHEAT MUTATED AND MUTATED/RECOMBINANT DH LINES

Abstract

The genetic progress towards quality and productivity improvement was and still remains a major concern in wheat breeding as generally these traits are negatively correlated. Consequently, any additional useful variability identification could contribute to attain this goal. Besides natural variability, exploitation by classical hybridization method, artificial mutagenesis can also be used to generate a different and new genetic variability. The special advantages of induced mutation are that variants with desired traits can often be produced in high frequencies, in a short time, in a chosen genetic background without disrupting the original genetic constitution of the crop. By using DH technology it become possible to perform a rapid and easier selection for desired plant type and, particularly for traits controlled through recessive alleles that constitute the greatest majority of genetic variability produced by irradiation with gamma rays. Many studies have demonstrated the role of thousand kernel weight traits in expression of productivity parameters and the protein content in expression of quality parameters in the wheat gene pool. In this paper is briefly described a study regarding protein content, thousand kernel weight (TKW) and volumetric mass (VM) variability generated by using a specific mutagenic protocol consisting in recurrent irradiation, hybridization and DHtechnology.