HIGH-MOLECULAR-WEIGHT GLUTENIN SUBUNIT COMPOSITION OF CHINESE BREAD WHEATS

The endosperm storage proteins of 205 Chinese bread wheat cultivars and advanced lines were fractionated by SDS-PAGE to determine their high molecular weight (HMW) glutenin subunit composition. Seventeen alleles were identified: three at Glu-A1, eight at Glu-B1, and six at Glu-Dl. The most common alleles were Null, 1, 7 + 8, 7 + 9, and 2 + 12. The results indicate that wheats from different regions differ in their frequencies of HMW glutenin subunits, however, none of the subunits could be related to specific environments. The glutenin quality scores of Chinese wheats ranged from 3 to 10, with an average of 6.7. Increasing quality scores have implications in improving steam-bread making quality for Chinese consumers. On the basis of HMW glutenin subunit composition, Chinese wheats are close to European wheats, especially Italian wheats because several Italian introductions are widely distributed in the pedigrees of Chinese wheat.