Unexpectedly Good Soft Wheat Quality from a Hard x Soft Cross

The soft-grained progeny of a recombinant inbred line (RIL) population was characterized for a comprehensive set of quality traits and associated quantitative trait loci (QTLs). The population was derived from the cross Tubbs (soft grained) x NSA 98-0995 (hard grained) and was grown in two crop years in Corvallis, Oregon. Transgressive segregation was observed for all of the studied traits. Hardness index was significantly correlated with several important traits related to the absorption capacity of the flour for diagnostic aqueous solvents. Five lines with a desired combination of superior soft wheat quality traits were also identified. Fifteen QTLs were detected on nine wheat chromosomes for eight traits. The observed transgressive segregation was useful, because RILs with potentially above average soft wheat quality were unexpectedly identified in this hard x soft cross. The QTLs identified in this study could be useful in marker-assisted selection for future preselection of progeny from Tubbs, NSA, or closely related genotypes.