Heritability and Relationship among Durum Wheat Quality Traits Using a Recombinant Inbred Lines Population

Traits related to seed quality have an important role in production of durum wheat. To estimate the heritability of protein content, semolina content, Zeleny number, seed hardness, SDS, dry and fresh gluten content, gluten index, and also to investigate the relationship of these traits in durum wheat, a recombinant inbred lines (RILs) population including 94 recombinant inbred lines (F10), two parents (Ac. Navigator and G9580B-FE1C) and four controls (Diper, Preion and PI10235 varieties and a local variety “Ajr”) were evaluated. This experiment was carried out in the Research Farm of Shahrekord University, Shahrekord, Iran, using a triple lattice design.. Results showed that frequency distribution for gluten index was bimodal and for the rest of the traits was normal. This indicated the two-genes control and quantitative inheritance of these traits in the population,respectively. Transgressive segregation was observed for all the traits. The calculated heritability for protein content, seed hardness, SDS and semolina content was in the low range of 11.4-24.7%. For fresh and dry gluten and Zeleny number, it was 45, 36.2 and 37.1%, respectively. For gluten index, it was high (76.6%). The genetic correlation coefficient between protein content and Zeleny number was positive and high (r= 0.98), which indicates the suitability of this trait as a criterion for protein content. The results of path analysis for semolina, as the main feature in pasta production, based on genetic correlation coefficients, showed that the highest negative direct effect was related to Zeleny number the highest positive effect was related to protein content, which indicated the importance of these traits in explaining the semolina yield.