Genotypic variation in water-soluble carbohydrate accumulation in wheat
Sari A. Ruuska A C , Greg J. Rebetzke A C , Anthony F. van Herwaarden B , Richard A. Richards A C , Neil A. Fettell D , Linda Tabe A C and Colin L. D. Jenkins A C EA CSIRO Plant Industry, GPO Box 1600, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
B CSIRO Plant Industry, 306 Carmody Road, St Lucia, Qld 4067, Australia.
C GrainGene, GPO Box 1600, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
D NSW Department of Primary Industries, Condobolin, NSW 2877, Australia.
E Corresponding author. Email: colin.jenkins@csiro.au
Functional Plant Biology 33(9) 799-809 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP06062
Submitted: 27 March 2006 Accepted: 17 May 2006 Published: 1 September 2006
Abstract
The water-soluble carbohydrate (WSC) that accumulates in the stems of wheat during growth can be an important contributor to grain filling, particularly under conditions when assimilation is limited, such as during end-of-season drought. WSC concentration was measured at anthesis across a diverse set of wheat genotypes over multiple environments. Environmental differences in WSC concentration were large (means for the set ranging between 108 and 203 mg g–1 dry weight), and there were significant and repeatable differences in WSC accumulation among genotypes (means ranging from 112 to 213 mg g–1 dry weight averaged across environments), associated with large broad-sense heritability (H = 0.90 ± 0.12). These results suggest that breeding for high WSC should be possible in wheat. The composition of the WSC, examined in selected genotypes, indicated that the variation in total WSC was attributed mainly to variation in the fructan component, with the other major soluble carbohydrates, sucrose and hexose, varying less. The degree of polymerisation (DP) of fructo-oligosaccharides was up to ~13 in samples where higher levels of WSC were accumulated, owing either to genotype or environment, but the higher DP components (DP > 6) were decreased in samples of lower total WSC. The results are consistent with fructan biosynthesis occurring via a sequential mechanism that is dependent on the availability of sucrose, and differences in WSC contents of genotypes are unlikely to be due to major mechanistic differences.
Keywords: fructan, genotypes, water-soluble carbohydrate, wheat.
Acknowledgments
The contributions of Bernie Mickelson, Gawain Bennett, Chelsey Morgan, Matthew Flint, David Lewis, Mick Weiss, Vanessa Gillespie, and Naohiro Aoki for expert assistance are gratefully acknowledged. This work was supported by the Grains Research and Development Corporation and GrainGene.
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