Origin and variation of gliadin proteins associated with pasta quality in durum wheat

Summary

Studies were made of the presence and frequency of occurrence of gliadin bands 42 and 45 in three samples of Aegilops sharonensis Eig and 59 samples of wild tetraploid wheat (Triticum dicoccoides Korn.) from natural distributions of these species in Israel.

Two samples of Ae. sharonensis possessed a band in position 45 and one possessed no bands corresponding to either band 45 or band 42. In T. dicoccoides, band 45 was either present or not and 42 was always absent. In its ‘grassy’ and intermediate growth habit forms, (believed to be more primitieve than the cercal forms) band 45 appeared to be more frequent than in the cereal form.

The presence of band 45 in the Ae. sharonensis, and its relatively high frequency in T. dicoccoides, populations from Mt. Hermon (likely to be relatively free from introgression from cultivated tetraploid wheat) indicate the likelihood of a primary origin of the allele coding for band 45. The absence of band 42 from all Ae. sharonensis and T. dicoccoides populations in this study, indicates a more recent evolutionary origin of the allele coding for this band, possibly arising as a mutation during the domestication of tetraploid wheat.

The results have implications for breeding programmes in tetraploid wheat.