Starch Properties in Different Lines of an old Hungarian Wheat Variety, Bánkúti 1201

Exploring the legacy of Central European historical winter wheat landraces

Historical wheat landraces are rich sources of genetic diversity offering untapped reservoirs for broadening the genetic base of modern varieties. Using a 20K SNP array, we investigated the accessible genetic diversity in a Central European bread wheat landrace collection with great drought, heat stress tolerance and higher tillering capacity. We discovered distinct differences in the number of average polymorphisms between landraces and modern wheat cultivars, and identified a set of novel rare alleles present at low frequencies in the landrace collection. The detected polymorphisms were unevenly distributed along the wheat genome, and polymorphic markers co-localized with genes of great agronomic importance. The geographical distribution of the inferred Bayesian clustering revealed six genetically homogenous ancestral groups among the collection, where the Central European core bared an admixed background originating from four ancestral groups. We evaluated the effective population sizes (Ne) of the Central European collection and assessed changes in diversity over time, which revealed a dramatic ~ 97% genetic erosion between 1955 and 2015.

A novel approach to the characterization of old wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) varieties by complex rheological analysis

BACKGROUND

Lines of the internationally recognized old Hungarian Bánkúti 1201 variety are important genetic resources for breeding programmes. Their protein composition and gluten dependent technological traits have been comprehensively studied, however, little information is available about their carbohydrate dependent viscous properties. The aim of this work was to obtain comprehensive rheological characterization of all sublines of Bánkúti 1201 maintained at Martonvásár and to investigate their variability if the carbohydrate dependent viscous behaviour was also included in the analyses.

RESULTS

The majority of the lines reflected the famously good mixing quality of Bánkúti, however, much higher diversity of pasting behaviour was detected. Cluster analysis of the Mixolab data was performed resulting in four sample groups. Since several lines of similar mixing properties had significantly different pasting characteristics, it was assumed that classification was mainly based on the viscous properties. From each cluster two to three representative samples were selected for wider examination using conventional testing methods. These results also supported the higher variability of pasting behaviour of the lines, which can be critical for end product quality. The members of the second cluster can be highlighted due to their waxy wheat like behaviour.

CONCLUSIONS

Possible reasons for the great variability of pasting behaviour could be the compositional and structural differences of starch and other carbohydrates (e.g. arabinoxylans). Complex rheological characterization and study of molecular background can provide information about important traits from the point of view of technology and product development, which are unknown in the case of old wheat varieties and landraces. © 2020 Society of Chemical Industry.