Evaluation of morpho-physiological and quality traits at winter wheat collection is a priority in  wheat breeding programs,specially to identify useful germplasm which may be used in crosses to obtain a large range of genetic diversity for wanted traits. The main purpose of this research which is also the object of a ph.d. thesis,   to study the morpho-physiological traits that has an influence on winter wheat quality. For this study 1150 cultivars of common winter wheat of different origin and representing a large range of agronomic types were grown in  years 2006 and 2008 at Agricultural Research Station Turda in the collection in screening nursery. These cultivars  were sown on plots of equal size without replications. The local check variety Ariesan was included from 10 to 10 plots,which resulted in 115 individual plots. Ariesan it is an early and productive variety with high protein and gluten content. The analyzed morphophysiological traits for years 2006 and 2008 were: vegetation period,plants height, number of grain/spike, grain weight/spike, 1000 grain weight, hectoliter weight, harvest index, protein content, N use efficiency, wet gluten content and falling number.  The protein content of wheat grain is an important factor in bread making quality. For wheat grain protein content we obtained a variability between 9.47 and 16.7%.  Statistical analyses were made for the 1150 wheats collection compared with the 115 plots of check variety Ariesan.Simple correlation coefficients(r) were calculated to provide a measure of the degree of association for the above mentioned traits. The results indicate a high variability between the 1150 cultivars in the common winter wheat collection for all studied characters. Coefficients of variation were higher in the case of common  wheat collection compared with the check variety, Ariesan, for all characters studied, revealing the expression of large genetic variability for qualitative characters in the collection of winter wheat. The calculated correlation coefficients indicate a significant and complex relationships does exist between the analyzed characters. The correlation between the protein content of wheat and its content of wet gluten was 0.69. Protein content was correlated positive  with heading date and had a  negative association with harvest index.

winter wheat; protein content; gluten content; nitrogen use efficiency(NUE)

Presentation: oral