Relation between susceptibility to wheat bug attack and digestibility of glutenin

Two trials of winter wheat, embracing 17 varieties and 4 breeding lines, harvested in 2003 from locations in the semi-arid eastern part of Austria, were severely infested by naturally occurring bugs (Eurygaster sp.). In these trials bug damage was determined by selecting and weighing the infested kernels. Glutenin degradation was determined by the addition of meal from bug-infested kernels to meal from sound kernels from the same trials to reach sample mixtures representing a degree of bug attack of 6%. These mixtures and blanks made from sound meal were incubated in buffer solution (pH=8.5) at 37 °C for 45 min. The reduction in glutenin content due to the activity of bug proteinases was measured by RP-HPLC analysis of the glutenin fraction and comparison of the results of damaged and sound samples. The results showed good correlations between the degree of bug attack and the digestibility of glutenin (location 1: R2=0.69, P<0.01; location 2: R2=0.36, P<0.01). Both parameters seem to be variety specific. The determination of digestibility of glutenins was repeated in material from a trial harvested in 2005 in another location in eastern Austria, with eight varieties being the same as used in the 2003 trials. A correlation with the degree of bug attack in location 1 from the 2003 harvest was found again (R2=0.61, P<0.01).