8th INTERNATIONAL WHEAT CONFERENCE

geNoTyPe ANd eNVIRoNmeNT effeCTS oN quALITy
of 23 WheAT geNoTyPeS CuLTIVATed IN 20 LATIN
AmeRICAN eNVIRoNmeNTS
Vázquez, D. 1 ; Berger, A. 1 ; Cuniberti, M. 2 ; Bainotti, C. 2 ;
Miranda, M. Z. de 3 , M.; Scheeren, P. L. 3 ; Jobet, C. 4 ;
Peña, R. J. 5 ; Cabrera, G. 6 ; Verges, R. 1
1 INIA La Estanzuela, Uruguay.
2 INTA Marcos Juárez, Argentina.
3 Embrapa Wheat, Passo Fundo, Brazil.
4 INIA Carillanca, Chile.
5 CIMMYT, Mexico.
6 IAN/DIA, Paraguay.
E-mail Address of presenting author: dvazquez@inia.org.uy
Wheat is being considered less as a commodity because the processing industry is demanding
wheat supplies more specific and uniform processing characteristics, required
to satisfy consumer’s demands of wheat-based food products. Therefore, understanding
the influence of both environment and genotype on wheat quality is a key issue. There is
a lack of this kind of information in the region. The objective of this work was to measure
the variability in wheat quality across the major wheat producing areas in Latin America
of a core set representing cultivars of main wheat-producing countries. Twenty three
genotypes were cultivated in 20 environments distributed across 9 sites in 6 countries -
Argentina (2), Brazil (2), Chile (1), Mexico (2), Paraguay(1) and Uruguay (2) - and two
growing seasons (2006, 2007 and/or 2008). The experimental design was a RCBD with 3
replicates. Cultural practices were performed as recommended at each site with full disease
control, adjusting nitrogen fertilization to achieve maximum yield potential and adequate
protein content. For each environment, information about cultural practices, soil
type and climate conditions were collected in most of the testing locations. Grain yield
was recorded for each plot. Protein content, ash content and test weight were determined
on grain. Gluten content, alveograph, farinograph, SDS sedimentation test, color (Minolta
Chroma Meter) and Falling Number parameters were analyzed on flour. Most determinations
were done on composite samples, although two replicates were analyzed for selected
genotypes. The observed variability on quality parameters was outstanding and covered
the entire range of variability previously reported for each parameter. Variability was larger
across environments than genotypes not only in those parameters previously reported
to vary predominantly with environmental conditions (i.e. test weight, gluten content),
but also in those parameters largely determined by the genotype (i.e. alveogram). GxE
analyses for each of the quality parameters measured reported in general non significant
GxE interaction. It was possible to group genotypes by quality characteristics. However,
due to the larger magnitude of environmental variation in some environments not even
the better performing genotypes were able to reach acceptable quality levels. Principal
493