Grain protein and grain yield of durum wheats from south-eastern Anatolia, Turkey

Abstract

High grain protein in durum wheat [Triticum turgidum ssp. turgidum L. conv. Durum (Desf.)] is one of the main goals of breeding programs. Landraces may be very useful germplasm for achieving this goal. To examine their potential as a source of high grain protein content, 11 genotypes, including 7 landraces, were evaluated in 8 environments.

Environment, genotype, and the interaction of the two (G E) significantly influenced the variation in grain yield, grain protein content, and grain protein yield. The environmental effect was the strongest, mostly due to differences in water supply. Grain yields of the modern genotypes were higher than those of landraces. Yields of the modern genotypes tended to respond more strongly to the higher yielding environments, but they varied more than the yields of landraces. With the exception of VK.85.18, the grain protein content of the high-yielding genotypes was almost as high as that of the best landraces. Moreover, grain protein content of these bred genotypes tended to respond more strongly to the higher protein environments. Differences in grain protein yield were closely related to the differences in grain yield.

The results indicate that it is possible to improve grain protein content without grain yield being adversely affected. The results also indicate that potential gene sources should be compared over a number of environments before they can be used as breeding material or as crop varieties producing high grain protein yields.