DisplayTitle

Effects of Soil Type and Tillage on Protein and Starch Quality in Three Related Wheat Genotypes

¹Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, The University of Sydney, NSW, 2006. Australia. ²Corresponding author. Phone: +61 2 8627 1018. Fax: +61 2 8627 1099. E-mail: meredith.wilkes@sydney.edu.au ³Visiting student from Institut Polytechnique LaSalle Beauvais, Beauvais Cedex, France.

An experiment was conducted using three related wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) genotypes grown on two different soil types (a grey vertosol and a red kandosol) using two different tillage practices (complete and zero) to test the effects of environmental influence on grain quality. Wheat grains from plants grown in each environment were milled into flour; protein and starch were analyzed. The soil type had the biggest impact on both protein and starch content, with the grains from the grey vertosol soil having higher total, insoluble, and soluble protein contents, and lower starch content and flour swelling values. When protein was analyzed using SDS-PAGE, the major difference observed between grains from the two soil types was an increased intensity of polypeptide bands corresponding to β-amylase in grains from plants grown on grey vertosol soils.