CULTIVATION AND USE VALUE OF THE NEW ARI DURUM WHEAT CULTIVAR HEKABE

TECHNICAL BULLETIN 212 ISSN 0070-2315 CULTIVATION AND USE VALUE OF THE NEW ARI DURUM WHEAT CULTIVAR HEKABE C.M. Josephides AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE, NATURAL RESOURCES AND THE ENVIRONMENT NICOSIA CYPRUS MAY 2003

Editor - in Chief Dr A.P. Mavrogenis, Agricultural Research Institute, Nicosia, Cyprus. All responsibility for the information in this publication remains with the author(s). The use of trade names does not imply endorsement of or discrimination against any product by the Agricultural Research Institute. 2

CULTIVATION AND USE VALUE OF THE NEW ARI DURUM WHEAT CULTIVAR HEKABE C.M. Josephides SUMMARY Hekabe originated from a cross made in 1989 (DRA S //LLOYD/KIA (CYP 2) 89-862-OD-18P-OP-3P-OP) between the promising Mexican cultivar DRA S introduced from CIMMYT and CYPRUS 2 (CYP2), a well-adapted ARI durum wheat line with high grain carotene content. The F 1 was grown as bulk at Athalassa and the F 2 at Dromolaxia. The breeding methodology used until F 6 generation was a modification of the pedigree method, pursuing early generation selection for oligogenic traits related to grain yield and quality improvement. Hekabe was evaluated in the multi-environment testing program under 14 environments in four growing seasons (1998-2001). It gave the highest grain yield (4810 kg/ha) which was 4, 13 and 66% higher than the commercially grown durum wheat cultivars Macedonia, Karpasia and Kyperounda, respectively. The main agronomic characteristics of Hekabe were similar to those of the improved cultivars Karpasia and Macedonia, but its kernel weight was significantly higher than that of both other cultivars. This will secure the trading value of durum wheat production in the semi-arid conditions prevailing during the grain formation. Hekabe had also similar processing quality characteristics with Macedonia, which was found to ensure high quality pasta and bread products. ΠΕΡΙΛΗΨΗ Η νέα ποικιλία σκληρού σιταριού Εκάβη είναι απόγονος της διασταύρωσης των ποικιλιών DRA S, που εισήχθη από το ιεθνές Κέντρο Βελτίωσης των σιτηρών στο Μεξικό και της γενετικής γραµµής του ΙΓΕ Κύπρος 2. Τα κύρια χαρακτηριστικά υπεροχής των εµπλεκόµενων στη διασταύρωση ποικιλιών σε σχέση µε τις καλλιεργούµενες ποικιλίες ήταν η καλή απόδοση, αλλά µε χαµηλή περιεκτικότητα σε καροτίνη του σπόρου της DRA S και η καλή προσαρµοστικότητα µαζί µε ψηλή περιεκτικότητα σε καροτίνη της Κύπρος 2. Στοχεύετο δε η µεταφορά αυτών των χαρακτηριστικών σε συνδυασµό µε άλλα επιθυµητά αγρονοµικά και ποιοτικά χαρακτηριστικά των δύο γονιών σε µια πιο δυναµική ποικιλία. Η βελτιωτική µέθοδος που ακολουθήθηκε µέχρι την 6η γενιά, οπότε επέρχεται και η σχετική οµοζυγωτία και σταθερότητα των απογόνων του κάθε φυτού, στηρίχθηκε σε ατοµική και συγκριτική γενεαλογική επιλογή φυτών ή γενετικών γραµµών. Στην πολυετή δε διάρκεια της επιδιώκετο η από νωρίς αποµάκρυνση ολιγονικής κληρονόµησης χαρακτηριστικών που επηρεάζουν αρνητικά την ποιότητα και αποδοτικότητα της κάθε υπό αξιολόγηση υποσχόµενης καθαρής γενετικής γραµµής. Η Εκάβη αξιολογήθηκε σε 14 πολυπεριφεριακά πειράµατα στη διάρκεια των καλλιεργητικών περιόδων 1998-2001. Η µέση εκταρική απόδοση της ήταν 4826 χιλγρ που ήταν 4, 16 και 67% πιο ψηλή από τις ποικιλίες Μακεδονία, Καρπασία και Κυπερούντα, αντίστοιχα. Τα κύρια αγρονοµικά χαρακτηριστικά της, µε εξαίρεση το πιο µεγάλο µέγεθος των κόκκων της, είναι παρόµοια µε της Μακεδονίας. Aυτό της παρέχει το πλεονέκτηµα να παράγει ικανοποιητικό µέγεθος σιταριού µε αποδεκτές εµπορικές προδιαγραφές, ακόµη και στις δύσκολες ξηροθερµικές συνθήκες. Σχετικά µε τη µεταποιητική της ικανότητα, η Εκάβη υπερτερεί στο κιτρινωπό χρώµα του παραγόµενου σιµιγδαλιού έναντι των µέχρι σήµερα καλλιεργούµενων ποικιλιών και η ποιότητα της γλουτένης τηςικανοποιεί τις απαιτήσεις της ντόπιας µεταποιητικής βιοµηχανίας για την παρασκευή επιθυµητής ποιότητας ψωµιού και µακαρονιών. 3

INTRODUCTION Barley and durum wheat are the only grain cereals currently grown in Cyprus. In the last five years (1996-2001) the average annual production delivered to Cyprus Grain Commission was 68,000 of barley and 10,000 t of durum wheat. On the other hand the annual needs of the milling wheat industry are 32,000 t of durum wheat and 62,000 t of bread wheat. The needs of feed grains are 335,000 t of barley and 187,000 t of maize (Anonymous, 2001). The area grown with durum wheat declined sharply in favour of barley as a result of uneven subsidies on cereal prices adopted by the Cyprus cereal merchandise authorities in the last 30 years. Thus, the differential price between durum wheat and barley has gradually decreased from 60 to 15% since 1970 (Anonymous 1971, 1993). This price structure encouraged the current monoculture of barley, because of its higher yield in most continuously planted cereal land. Hence, durum wheat is currently grown only in the high cereal yielding environments or in environments with supplementary irrigation, where barley suffers lodging and yield less than durum wheat (Josephides, 1993). In Cyprus durum wheat is used for a variety of food products, such as pasta, bread, bulgur, trachanas, etc. This multiple use of durum wheat makes quality improvement very important. Grain physical characteristics (vitreousness, kernel weight and hectoliter weight) are the most important quality trading parameters since they are positively associated with semolina and flour yield. Grain vitreousness, carotene content and gluten strength are the major factors influencing the quality of durum wheat end-products. Gluten has a significant effect on the production of pasta and bread products. Strong gluten cultivars produce pasta with greater cooked firmness and increased tolerance to overcooking, and enhance the potential of bread making. Carotene content is positively associated with the yellowness, brightness and antioxidant effect of pasta products (Joppa and Williams, 1988). Thus, in the development of new durum wheat cultivars for commercial cultivation any breeding approach must be designed to ensure that any new released cultivar has acceptable agronomic characteristics to meet the demand of the farmers and the quality characteristics required by the milling and processing industry. In recent years the heritability for most of the desired quality traits (kernel colour, shape, size, vitreousness, gluten strength, carotene content, etc.) and the agronomic characteristics with specific weakness on durum wheat productivity (late maturity, lodging, plant height, spike characteristics, etc.) is known (Blanco et al., Joppa and Williams, 1988). Hence, they have to be selected or eliminated as soon as it is permitted by their mode of inheritance and the available breeding tools. In Cyprus, the improvement of durum wheat productivity and processing quality have been the foremost objectives of the breeding program, which started with the local cultivar Kyperounda and was followed by the cultivar Macedonia, currently grown in all durum wheat areas of Cyprus (Josephides, 1994). Macedonia, originated from a cross made in 1984 (KIA *2/VIC CYD85-345- 18D.OP-3P-OP) between the cultivar VIC introduced from North Dakota State University, USA, having high quality processing characteristics and Karpasia (KIA), the commercially grown durum wheat cultivar of that time. The homogeneous plants of F 1 were grown at ICARDAΪs summer nursery. In the following growing season (1984-85) plants selected from F 2 generation were backcrossed to Karpasia. Macedonia is superior to KIA in grain yield by 9% and combines its earliness and plant height. Further, it has similar processing qualities with VIC. MATERIALS AND METHODS In 1989, the agronomically promising CIM- MYT durum wheat cultivar DRAΪSΪ was crossed with the high semolina carotene content durum wheat line LLOYD/KIA CYD 84-313- 34D-OP IM OP. The F 1 was grown at Athalassa in 1990/91 and the breeding methodology used from F 1 up to F 6 generation, where practically homozygosity is reached, was a modification of the pedigree method pursuing early generation selection for grain yield and quality in durum wheat (Josephides, 1988).Thus, F 2 population of more than 2,000 plants was planted as a bulk in fall 1991 and 100 spikes from individual healthy plants with the desirable earliness, height and spike characteristics were selected. In the fall of 1992, each spike was planted in rows one meter 4

long of a fertile soil and under supplementary irrigation, in order to harvest enough seed for experimental testing in the next growing season. Agronomically selected lines were screened for grain quality characteristics, carotene content and gluten strength. Promising lines were tested in replicated yield trials in 1993/94 and five to ten spikes from each F 4 line, resembling the majority of plants were taken. Individual spikes from high yielding and quality lines were sown in spike-rows in the fall of 1995 and further selection for yield and quality was made in the summer of 1996. Selected lines were sown in the fall of 1996 in a preliminary yield trial and the best lines were promoted for further testing in the advanced yield trials and official quality testing. Those lines were evaluated, together with other cultivars previously released in Cyprus (Hadjichristodoulou et al., 1977, 1982 and 1984), in the multi-environment testing program at a total of 14 environments from 1997 to 2001. The best line with the pedigree DRA S //KIA/LLOYD CYD 89-862-OD-18P- 3P-OP that outyielded all the checks and passed all the prerequisite grain and flour quality tests was named HEKABE. The experiments were grown at Dromolaxia, Morokambos and Polis Chrisochous under rainfed conditions and at Acheleia and Xylotymbou under supplementary irrigation. Seed rate was adjusted for seed size and percent germination so that the same number of viable seeds for all cultivars was sown per unit area. A seed rate of 120 kg/ha with average seed weight 45 mg and 94% germination was taken as the basis for such calculations. Sowing was done with an experimental drill and harvesting by an experimental plot combine. At sowing, 80 kg/ha of each N and P 2 0 5 were applied at the rainfed grown experiments and 20 kg/n was top-dressed at the tillering stage at the supplementary irrigated experiments. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Grain yield and agronomic characterstics Hekabe and the currently grown commercially durum wheat cultivar Macedonia performed similarly during the four growing seasons as indicated by the non significant cultivar mean grain yield by growing season interaction. However, Hekabe with mean grain yield 4826 kg/ha (over the four growing seasons) gave 4% higher grain yield than Macedonia (4661 kg/ha). Further more, Hekabe significantly outyielded the previously grown durum wheat cultivars Karpasia, Mesaoria, Aronas and Kyperounda, by 16, 16, 21 and 67%, respectively (Table 1). Hekabe was intermediate in plant height at maturity and was resistant to lodging. Its earliness and the number of Kernels/spike were similar to those of the recently grown cultivars in Cyprus. However, Hekabe produced kernels with significantly higher weight, hence its higher yield (Table 2). Table 1. Grain yield (kg/ha) of six durum wheat cultivars under 14 environments Growing Season Cultivar 1997/98 1998/99 1999/00 2000/01 Weighted Relative Mean performance* Hekabe 4623 5631 4618 4691 4826 167 Macedonia 5023 5347 4323 4481 4661 161 Karpasia 4170 5205 3836 3923 4156 144 Mesaoria 4462 4974 3833 3949 4164 144 Aronas 3913 4708 3369 4099 3990 138 Kyperounda 2787 3150 3072 2714 2893 100 Mean 4163 4836 3842 3976 4115 LSD (a=0.05) 1490 1052 990 861 525 No. of Environments 2 3 4 5 14 *Kyperounda=100. 5

Table 2. Agronomic characteristics of six durum wheat cultivars under 14 environments during 1997-2001 Cultivar Plant height Days to heading Tillers/m 2 Kernels/ 1000-kernel (cm) 1 st March=1 spike weight (g) Hekabe 85 17 337 33 45 Macedonia 82 16 356 37 39 Karpasia 82 19 318 36 38 Mesaoria 72 14 339 32 41 Aronas 85 16 326 30 41 Kyperounda 99 31 310 29 35 Mean 84 19 331 33 40 LSD 0.05 3.6 1.3 27.1 4.4 3.3 No. of Observations 92 84 40 31 36 Grain quality characteristics Hekabe has kernels of amber colour, and vitreousness 96% kerneds, similar to that of the recently cultivated durum wheat cultivars (Table 3). All cultivars had high hectoliter weight ranging from 76 to 79 kg/hl. Vitreousness and hectoliter weight are associated with semolina yield and quality. Further more, durum wheat with more than 75% vitreous kernels and 77 kg/hl is considered, by US standards, as Hard Amber, Durum Wheat, Grade No. 1 earning a high premium price in the cereal market. Hekabe also had 8.4 ppm, grain yellow pigment content compared to 8.1, 7.0, 5.4 and 3.8 ppm for Macedonia, Karpasia, Mesaoria and Aronas, respectively. Yellow pigments are associated with the colour and brightness of pasta and bread products. All cultivars had low α-amylase enzymatic activity, because of the hot and dry conditions during the grain filling period. Their Falling Number ranged from 596 to 787 compared to 250 seconds, which is considered as optimum for bread making. Thus, pure α- amylase or malt must be added to their flour for optimum baking. Grain protein content was similar in all cultivars, hence its quality would be the indicative factor for the endproduct quality (Josephides et al. 1983). Ash grain content was similar for all cultivars. Flour quality characteristics Flour samples were tested by the farinograph and mixograph methods (AACC, 1995). Hekabe and Macedonia had higher gluten strength than Mesaoria, Karpasia and Kyperounda. All dough properties, i.e. dough development time, dough tolerance or stability and dough softening for all cultivars are summarized in Table 4. Dough development time (DDT), which is a measure of the time needed for the farinogram and mixogram to reach their peak, is indicative of gluten strength. Strong gluten flours have longer DDT than weak flours (Williams et al. 1986). Macedonia had higher DDT than Hekabe, and both had higher DDT than the previously cultivated durum wheat cultivars Kyperounda, Table 3. Grain quality characteristics of six durum wheat cultivars tested in 1997-2001 Volume Yellow Micro-SDS Falling Vitreousness weight pigments sedimentation number Protein Ash Cultivar (%) (kg/hl) (ppm) (mm) (sec) % % Hekabe 96 77 8.4 41 787 15.9 1.88 Macedonia 95 76 8.1 44 682 16.2 1.81 Karpasia 95 77 7.0 23 628 17.0 1.92 Mesaoria 96 75 5.4 23 661 16.2 1.88 Aronas 92 76 3.8 46 664 15.7 1.97 Kyperounda 97 79 7.0 30 596 17.1 1.92 Mean 95 77 6.6 34 670 16.4 1.89 LSD (=0.05) 4.6 1.7 0.33 3.9 109 1.5 0.17 No. of Observations 22 36 29 20 16 24 14 6

Table 4. Physical dough properties of six durum wheat cultivars during 1997-2001 Farinograph characteristics of dough Mixograph Characteristics of dough Development Stability Softening Valorimetric Development Stability Softening time (min) time (min) FU number time (min) time (min) Hekabe 3.9 7.3 45 63 2.9 1.3 8 Macedonia 4.4 6.6 58 61 3.3 2.0 18 Karpasia 2.3 1.9 85 51 1.8 1.4 28 Mesaoria 2.1 1.4 130 42 1.8 1.2 29 Aronas 4.7 7.6 51 63 3.0 2.1 6 Kyperounda 2.4 1.9 119 46 1.7 1.4 23 No. of Environments 10 10 10 10 12 12 12 Karpasia and Mesaoria. The degree of dough softening is one of the principal flour characteristics. The sooner this softening occurs the less fermentation and physical abuse the flour can generally withstand (Bloksma and Bushuk, 1998). Hekabe had the lowest degradation of gluten strength (45) compared to Aronas, Macedonia, Karpasia, Kyperounda and Mesaoria (51, 58, 85, 119 and 130 Farinagram Units (FU), respectively). Overall, Hekabe had better gluten properties than the other previously grown cultivars for baking to Cyprus bread. These differences in gluten strength are due to differences obtained in glutenine subunits coded by genes on chromosome IB (J.M. Carillo, 2001 personal communication). Hekabe with its high grain yield and weight, yellow pigments and unique gluten properties is recommended for release. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author acknowledges the technical assistance of Mr. G. Alexandrou, M. Mouzouris, A. Pharmakides and Mrs Maro Hadjievagelou. The contribution of Mr. Chr. Theodorides in statistical analyses and of the staff of the Central Chemistry laboratory for chemical analyses is also acknowledged. REFERENCES AAC. 1995. Mixograph and farinograph methods for flour (method 54-40 and 54-21). Approved methods of the American Association of Cereal Chemists, 9 th edition. AACC Incorporated, St. Paul, Minnesota. Anonymous. 1971. Annual Report for 1969-70. Cyprus Grain Commission, Nicosia. Anonymous. 1993. Annual Report for 1991-92. Cyprus Grain Commission, Nicosia. Anonymous. 2001. Annual Report for 2000-01. Cyprus Grain Commission, Nicosia. Bloksma, A.H., and W. Bushuk. 1988. Rheology and chemistry of dough. In Wheat Chemistry and Technology. American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc., 3 rd edition 2:131-217. Blanco, A., C. De Pace, E. Porceddu, and G.T. Scarascia Magnoza. 1988. Genetics and breeding of durum wheat in Europe. In Durum Wheat: Chemistry and Technology (Fabriani G. and Lintas C., eds) pp. 17-36. AACC, Inc, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA. Hadjichristodoulou, A., A. Della, and C. Josephides. 1977. A new durum wheat variety, Aronas. Technical Bulletin 22. Agricultural Research Institute, Nicosia. 13p. Hadjichristodoulou, A., C. Josephides, and A. Kari. 1982. Performance of the new durum wheat variety Mesaoria under rainfed conditions. Technical Bulletin 22. Agricultural Research Institute, Nicosia. 13p. Hadjichristodoulou, A., and A. Kari. 1984. Karpasia, a high yielding new durum wheat variety with improved quality quaracteristics. Technical Bulletin 57. Agricultural Research Institute, Nicosia. 7p. Josephides, C.M. 1988. Early generation selection for quality and grain yield improvement in a Triticum turgidum L. var. durum breeding programme in Cyprus. Proceedings of the 7 th International Wheat Genetics Symposium, Vol. 2:1115-1118. Cambridge, 1988. 7

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