Influence of a gene causing hardness on the milling and baking quality of two wheats

Abstract

Near-isogenic lines of Falcon, a hard wheat with good baking quality and high milling extraction, and Heron, a soft wheat of medium baking quality and rather low milling extraction, were produced differing only in the gene which determines hardness as measured by the particle size index.

It is shown that the superiority of Falcon in milling extraction, loaf texture, and dough handling characteristics is very strongly associated with the gene which causes it to be a hard wheat. While Falcon generally has a loaf volume superior to that of Heron, if the genetic background of two wheats is identical except for hardness, soft wheats have higher loaf volumes. Because these three variables, which largely constitute total loaf score, are not all favoured by the same particle size index, total loaf score is less clearly influenced by hardness. Nevertheless hard wheats are always superior to, or not significantly different from, soft wheats of the same pedigree in this respect.

This work points out the difficulty of producing really good quality soft wheats but on the other hand shows that soft wheats can easily be improved in at least some features of baking quality by the simple process of making them hard.