Genetic analysis of amino acid content in wheat grain

Complete diallel crosses with five parents of common wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) were conducted to analyse inheritance of 17 amino acid contents by using the genetic model including seed, cytoplasmic, maternal and environment interaction effects on quantitative traits of seeds in cereal crops. The results showed that inheritance of 17 amino acid contents, except tyrosine, was controlled by several genetic systems including seed, cytoplasmic, and maternal effects, and by significant gene × environment interaction effects. Seed-direct additive and maternal effects constituted a major part of genetic effects for lysine, tyrosine, arginine, methionine, and glutamic acid content. Seed-direct additive effect formed main part in inheritance of isoleucine and serine contents. Threonine content was mainly governed by maternal additive effect. The other nine amino acid contents were almost entirely controlled by dominance effects. High general heritability of tyrosine (36.3%), arginine (45.8%), lysine (24.7%) and threonine (21.4%) contents, revealed that it could be effective to improve them by direct selection in progenies from appropriate crosses. Interaction heritability for phenylalanine, proline, and histidine content, which was 36.1%, 39.5% and 25.7%, respectively, was higher than for the other amino acids.