U.S. Department of Agriculture: Agricultural Research Service, Lincoln, Nebraska
ORCID IDs
Date of this Version
2004
Citation
Crop Science, Vol. 44, July–August 2004
Abstract
Nineteen spring waxy (amylose-free) wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) germplasm lines (Reg. no. GP-748 to GP-766, PI 619354–619357, 619359–619363, 619365–619369, 619371–619375) were developed and released by the ARS, USDA, and the Nebraska Agricultural Experiment Station in cooperation with the Agricultural Experiment Stations of North Dakota and Idaho in September 2002. Waxy wheats carry three non-functional (null) alleles (Wx-A1b, Wx-B1b, and Wx-D1b) at the genetic loci encoding the enzyme granule-bound starch synthase (GBSS, EC 2.4.1.21) (Nakamura et al., 1995). GBSS also is known as the “waxy” protein. Waxy wheats produce endospermstarch that is nearly devoid of amylose. Such starch confers unique functional properties to derived wheat flour. Suggested uses for waxy wheats include the production of modified food starches, a blending agent to create flours with optimal amylose concentration for the production of a variety of sheeted and baked food products, and as an animal feed (reviewed by Graybosch, 1998). Waxy wheats also are useful as donors of the Wx null alleles, which may be used to develop partial waxy or reduced-amylose wheats. The presence of one or two such alleles can result in wheat flours with superior performance in certain food applications including white salted noodles (Epstein et al., 2002). Few waxy wheats have been publicly available to date, and those released (Morris and Konzak, 2001) are ill-adapted to North American spring wheat production zones. The release of this set of 19 waxy lines greatly expands the number of available genetic backgrounds carrying the waxy trait in wheat. Pedigrees and Plant Introduction (PI) numbers of the lines are listed in Table 1.