On the Use of the Genetic Resources of Tetraploid Wheat Triticum aethiopicum for the Development of Purple-Grain Soft Wheat with a High Content of Anthocyanins

The work considers the results on the development of purple-grain soft wheat and the study of its genetic diversity. Triticum aethiopicum Jakubz. 2 n = 28 is the only source of genes for the purple grain color among wheat species. The trait of purple grain is accompanied by an increase in the content of anthocyanins and micronutrients in the grain. To develop soft-wheat lines with purple grain, T. aethiopicum k-19068 was first hybridized with the Iranian landrace T. aestivum k-14333. The resulting hybrids were then crossed with the highly productive soft-wheat cultivar Liza. The developing lines F6 (2 n = 42) characterize a low diversity on multiple alleles of gliadin-coding loci ( H = 0.410). They are dominated by alleles inherited from the parent variety Liza. No gliadin alleles that could belong to T. aethiopicum are identified. Comparison of the groups of lines with purple and white grains makes it possible to show that they do not significantly differ from each other in terms of yield and elements of their structure. As a result, we have not found a negative correlation between the high content of anthocyanins in the grain and grain productivity.