1BL/1RS translocation in durum wheat and its effect on end use quality traits

The gluten proteins document the genotypic identity of a wheat variety, in addition to providing valuable clues about its ancestry and technological properties. In this study, an Indian durum wheat genotype B662 was identified to carry 1BL/1RS translocation and characterized further for its effect on end use quality traits. Comparison of the end use quality traits of B662 with five other durum cultivars without 1BL/1RS, showed decreased gluten content, lower swelling index of glutenins and low MSDS-SV indicating that, B662 with 1BL/1RS is not good for pasta making. In F2:3 seeds from a durum wheat cross between the 1BL/1RS cultivar B662 and HI8498 without the translocation, the secalin Sec-1 loci segregated in theoretically expected 3:1 proportion and were inherited as a block of the rye chromosome arm. The analysis of F2:3 harvests for the two most important durum wheat quality tests showed that the presence of 1BL/1RS translocation did not alter the grain protein content values, but was associated with significant reduction of micro SDS-sedimentation volume indicating inferior quality, thus limiting the commercial exploitation of durum wheat genotypes with 1BL/1RS translocation. The cautious use of rye translocation in Indian durum wheat breeding is suggested.