Correlations between the inheritance of certain high‐molecular weight subunits of glutenin and bread‐making quality in progenies of six crosses of bread wheat

Abstract The homoeologous group 1 chromosomes of wheat contain in total five major gene groupings which code for the high‐molecular weight subunits of glutenin. Each gene group displays allelic variation that is detectable by sodium dodecyl sulphate‐polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS‐PAGE). Some of the different allelic subunits have been assessed for their relationship to bread‐making quality. The procedure has been to analyse numerous, unselected progeny of crosses between varieties for both bread‐making quality (by the SDS‐sedimentation test) and subunit composition (by SDS‐PAGE). Two strong correlations with quality were detected in the progeny of several crosses: the presence of subunit 1, a polypeptide coded by genes of chromosome 1A, and the presence of subunits 5 and 10, coded for by chromosome ID. Other significant correlations were detected which need to be confirmed by further analyses. The results are discussed in relation to (i) the relative positions of the glutenin genes on the group 1 chromosomes; and (ii) future strategies for breeding wheats with improved bread‐making quality.