New B low Mr glutenin subunit alleles at the Glu-A3, Glu-B2 and Glu-B3 loci and their relationship with gluten strength in durum wheat

The B low Mr subunits of glutenin of the F2 generation from three durum wheat crosses were analysed. Three new alleles were found at three different loci: Glu-A3i coding for 5C20 subunits, Glu-B2c coding for subunit 12* and Glu-B3l coding for 1C3C13*C16 subunits. The genetic distances between Glu-A3-Gli-A1, Glu-B2-Gli-B1, Glu-B3-Glu-B2 and Glu-B3-Gli-B1 were calculated. The effects of the allelic variation at the Glu-A3, Glu-B2 and Glu-B3 on protein content and gluten strength, as measured by the SDS-sedimentation test, were determined using F4 lines from the three crosses. All the new alleles affected significantly gluten strength. The presence of Glu-A3i had a negative influence on SDSS values compared with the allele a. For Glu-B2 and Glu-B3 the data obtained enable the effects of the alleles on SDSS volume to be ranked: aZbOc for Glu-B2 and aObOl for Glu-B3. The results also shown that the allelic variants at Glu-B3 had a much greater effect on gluten strength than the variants at Glu-A3 or Glu-B2 loci. A high percentage of variation in sedimentation volume was explained by the prolamins (52 and 70%). q 2004 Published by Elsevier Ltd.