Reselection of hard red winter wheat cultivar Lancota for high grain protein content

Summary

The wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivar Lancota has genetic potential to produce grain with higher protein content than most other cultivars grown in the hard winter wheat region. It has not consistently expressed full potential for grain protein content outside its area of development. Experiments were conducted to determine genetic variability for grain protein content in Lancota and to utilize that variability to select genotypes with high grain protein content. Approximately 1600 lines were screened to 37 high-protein selections that varied in yield, test weight, flour mixing time, blooming date, height, and reaction to wheat soil-borne mosaic virus (WSBM). Nine promising selections (KS80476, KS80478, KS80480, KS80488, KS80490, KS80491, KS80497, KS80499, and KS80500) had grain protein advantage over Lancota of 0.5 to 1.0% and equalled or exceeded Lancota in yield or test weight. Those selections were resistant to WSBM and satisfactory or better in mixing properties than Lancota. The highest protein selection (KS80496) had a mean protein advantage of 1.5% over Lancota but exhibited a short mixing time of 1 7/8 min. The absence of correlation between some years indicated strong environmental influence on protein content. We concluded that adequate genetic variability existed in the high-grain protein cultivar Lancota to select lines that express the high protein potential better than the original cultivar outside its area of development.