An integrated approach to predicting end-product quality of wheat

One of the most important tasks of cereal science is to relate end-product quality to genes involved in determining certain attributes of quality. It requires a good understanding of the complex nature of quality that can lead to the proper measurements of these attributes. Most of our knowledge about the ‘genetics of quality’ derives from two different experimental approaches: (i) direct measurements of quality traits on samples with systematically altered chemical composition; (ii) relating quality and chemical composition/genetics of large sample populations using statistical methods. An overview on the recent achievements of these two approaches will be given introducing a novel prediction procedure relating the individual and interactive contribution of high molecular weight (HMW-GS) and low molecular weight (LMW-GS) glutenin-subunit alleles to specific dough parameters and end-product quality attributes. The results shown are based on a statistical investigation of more than 3000 samples covering most of the glutenin alleles and allelic combinations appearing in the Australian bread wheat cultivars.