Seasonal changes in wheat-grain quality associated with high temperatures during grain filling

Abstract

Wheat plants exposed to higher than usual temperatures during ripening produced grain with weaker dough properties in glasshouse, field experiments and crop samples. In a review of Prime Hard wheat samples from 1960/61 to 1988/89, those seasons when the dough properties were particularly weak coincided with the years when the number of hours over 35¦C during the grain filling period (October to December) was greatest. A five-day period of heat stress in 1988 provided an opportunity to directly investigate the effects of heat stress in the field. A weakening of dough properties was shown, for four varieties, by longer dough development times and faster breakdown in the Farinograph and also by shorter resistance to extension (at 5 cm) in the Extensograph. These (and similar changes for glasshouse grown grain) were accompanied by an increase in the proportion of gliadin (monomeric) proteins. That this increase was associated with the heat stress was shown by demonstrating increased accumulation of 14C amino acids into the gliadin fraction for heat-stressed heads in culture. These results support the hypothesis that episodes of high temperature during grain filling activate the heat shock elements of gliadin genes in wheat causing the mature grain to contain more gliadin and thus to produce weaker doughs.