Rains during grain ripening in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) can cause preharvest sprouting (PHS), which drastically affects the grain yield and the baking quality of four. In the present study, to screen 7 cultivars and 4 lines of spring bread wheat for PHS, germination tests were conducted with seeds obtained from wet spikes harvested immediately afer natural rainfall. | Research Article Turk J Agric For 35 (2011) 9-22 © TÜBİTAK doi: Genetic analysis of preharvest sprouting tolerance in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L. emend. ell.) Cemal YÜCEL*, Faheem Shehzad BALOCH*, Rüştü HATİPOĞLU, Hakan ÖZKAN** Department of Field Crops, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Çukurova, 01330 Adana - TURKEY Received: Abstract: Rains during grain ripening in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) can cause preharvest sprouting (PHS), which drastically affects the grain yield and the baking quality of flour. In the present study, to screen 7 cultivars and 4 lines of spring bread wheat for PHS, germination tests were conducted with seeds obtained from wet spikes harvested immediately a er natural rainfall. Germination tests were carried out as 3 different treatments: 1) seeds immediately germinated a er hand-threshing on sampling day (T1), 2) seeds germinated 1 week later a er hand-threshing (T2), and 3) 10 intact spikes kept on paper under laboratory conditions at room temperature, hand threshed and then put to germinate 7 days later (T3). Red-grained cultivars Sagitario and Pandas, red-grained line F6 , and whitegrained cultivar Sunlin showed the higher PHS tolerance, while other wheat cultivars and lines were found to be susceptible to PHS under all treatment conditions. To evaluate the mode of inheritance and combining ability of PHS tolerance, a diallel cross was made between 3 white-grained (susceptible) and 2 red-grained wheat (resistant) cultivars. Analysis of variance for combining ability showed the predominance of an additive gene effect for PHS tolerance, as the variance of the general combining ability was higher than the specific combining ability for both percent germination and germination index. Pandas and Sagitario showed positive contributions toward increasing PHS tolerance in the F1 progenies. Results presented in this study will provide useful information for wheat breeders about PHS .
