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Wheat Information Service
Number 85: 7-13 (1997)
Research article

Screening of Aegilops, Triticum and Hordeum species for grain weight, protein and lysine content1)

Maqbool Ahmad, MA. Arain and K.A. Siddiqui

Atomic Energy Agricultural Research Centre Tandojam, 70060, Sindh, Pakistan


Summary

Grains of four species of Aegilops (Ae. ovata, Ae. kotschyi, Ae. tauschii, Ae. vavilovii), eight species of Triticum (T. monococcum, T. dicoccum, T. dicoccoides (4 accessions), T. polonicum, T turgidum, T. aestivum, T spelta, T. sphaerococcum) and one species of Hordeum (H. vulgare) were studied for grain weight, protein and lysine contents. T. polonicum possessed exceptionally high 100grain weight (6.5g) almost double the diploid, tetraploid and hexaploid wheats. All the species of Aegilops were poor in grain weight. A negative correlation was observed between grain weight and protein and grain weight and lysine content. Species usually having poor grain weight (Ae. ovata, Ae. kotschyi, Ae. tauschii and T, dicoccoides) possessed higher protein (>18%) and lysine (>3.65% protein and 6.0 mg/g flour) content. Very strong positive correlations were established between protein content and flour lysine (r= 0.994) and between protein content and protein lysine (r= 0.801). An accession No. 49 of T. dicoccoides' wild emmer' possessed simultaneously better 100-grain weight (2.71g), higher protein (17.42%) and lysine (6.25 mg/g flour and 3.59% protein) content.

Key words: Aegilops, Triticum, Hordeum, protein, lysine


Introduction

The significance of food for biological survival is self-evident. Cereals being the dominating source of food are rich in starch with reasonable amount of protein. The contemporary cultivated species of wheat are the derivatives of the wild grasses, passed through spatial and temporal evolutionary processes. These wild grasses have been successfully used in the improvement of qualitative and quantitative traits in wheat (Sears 1956; Avivi et al. 1983; Grama et al. 1983; Levy and Feldman 1987; Levy et al. 1988; Nevo 1988; Vallega 1992). These wild species though inherently produce low grain yield, yet some of the species, such as T dicoccoides has the potential to produce more protein per hectare than contemporary bread wheats. Moreover, Johnson et al. (1985) have proved that the high yielding varieties with substantially higher protein content can be developed. Nevertheless, wheat of stone age is being introduced in Germany by environment conscious farmers (Dunn 1991).

Preliminary results of a study on screening of wild grasses, ancient wheats and barley for grain weight, protein and lysine content are reported in this paper.
1) Contribution No. 38 of AEARC Tandojam, Pakistan.

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