Juan B. Alvarez

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• Dr. in Biological Sciences
• Professor at University of Córdoba

Key message: The hybridization events with wild relatives and old varieties are an alternative source for enlarging the wheat quality variability. This review describes these process and their effects on the technological and nutritional quality. Wheat quality and its end-uses are mainly based on variation in three traits: grain hardness, gluten q...

Club wheat (Triticum aestivum L. ssp. compactum (Host) Mackey), macha wheat (T. aestivum L. ssp. macha (Dekapr. & A.M. Menabde) Mackey) and Indian dwarf wheat (T. aestivum L. ssp. sphaerococcum (Percival) Mackey) are three neglected or underutilized subspecies of hexaploid wheat. These materials were and are used to elaborate modern and traditional...

Spelt wheat (Triticum aestivum L. ssp. spelta Thell.) is an ancient wheat that was widely cultivated in the past. This species derived from a cross between emmer wheat (T. turgidum spp. dicoccum Schrank em. Thell.) and Aegilops tauschii Coss. Its main origin was in the Fertile Crescent (Near East), with a secondary center of origin in Europe due to...

The starch fraction, comprising about 70 % of the total dry matter in the wheat grain, can greatly affect the end-use quality of products made from wheat kernels, especially Asian noodles. Starch is associated with the shelf life and nutritional value (glycaemic index) of different wheat products. Starch quality is closely associated with the ratio...

Spelt (Triticum aestivum ssp. spelta) is part of the so-called ancient wheats. These types of wheats are experiencing a revival as they have been proposed to be healthier than conventional wheat. However, the given healthier condition of spelt is not substantiated by solid scientific evidence. The objective of this study was to analyze the genetic...

Tritordeum is a crop that is gaining interest in the last years, particularly to be used in the production of high quality artisan baked products, mainly bread. This cereal was synthesized by the cross between durum wheat and South-American wild barley (Hordeum chilense) as female parent. Although multiple primary tritordeum were carried out using...

Gluten quality is an important characteristic of wheat. Gluten is a viscoelastic protein network that is formed after hydrating and mixing wheat flour. This protein network is mainly composed of glutenins (High and Low Molecular Weight Glutenins (HMW-GS and LMW-GS, respectively)) and gliadins. HMW-GS are codified by the loci GLU-A1, GLU-B1 and GLU-...

Spelt wheat (Triticum aestivum L. ssp. spelta Thell.) is an ancient wheat that has been widely cultivated for hundreds of years. Recently, this species has been neglected in most of Europe; however, the desire for more natural and traditional foods has driven a revival of the crop. In the current study, eighty-eight traditional spelt genotypes from...

Wheat is one of the most widely grown crops in the world. One of the traits that defines wheat quality is grain hardness, which is determined by puroindolines (PINA and PINB) proteins encoded with Pina-D1 and Pinb-D1 genes. In this study, the diversity of Pina-D1 and Pinb-D1 was evaluated in a collection of 271 Iranian common wheat (Triticum aestiv...

Wheat quality is a complex concept whose importance lies in determining the ability of each segment of the post-harvest processing and marketing industries to minimize cost while maximizing profit. Wheat quality is also a highly subjective concept that could be defined differently by the various stakeholders in the wheat value chain. It is usually...

Wild einkorn (Triticum monococcum L. ssp. aegilopoides (Link) Thell.) is a diploid wheat species from the Near East that has been classified as an ancestor of the first cultivated wheat (einkorn; T. monococcum L. ssp. monococcum). Its genome (Am), although it is not the donor of the A genome in polyploid wheat, shows high similarity to the Au genom...

Wheat starch is composed of two glucose polymers, amylose and amylopectin. Although several starch synthases are responsible for its synthesis, only the waxy protein is associated with the amylose synthesis. The waxy protein composition of 45 Spanish common wheat landraces from Andalusia (southern Spain) was evaluated. Within these materials, five...

Wheat, which originated around 12,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent, is one of the most important crops worldwide providing around 20% of the total calories and protein of the human diet. During its long history across the whole world, several species and thousands of landraces have evolved making wheat the crop with more and diverse genetic re...

Grain hardness is an important characteristic of wheat quality. This trait is mainly related to the variation in, and the presence of, puroindolines (Pina and Pinb genes), and, to a lesser extent, the grain softness protein (Gsp-1) gene. The current study evaluated the allelic variability levels of these three genes in 12 diploid lines from Agropyr...

Starch, as the main grain component, has great importance in wheat quality, with the ratio between the two formed polymers, amylose and amylopectin, determining the starch properties. Granule-bound starch synthase I (GBSSI), or waxy protein, encoded by the Wx gene is the sole enzyme responsible for amylose synthesis. The current study evaluated the...

Low molecular weight glutenin subunits (LMWGs) are part of the gluten network that gives dough its viscoelastic properties. A-genome-containing diploid species related to modern polyploid wheat show great variability in these subunits. The current study characterized the variability of LMW-m and -s genes, being identified fifteen LMWGs genes in the...

Low-molecular-weight glutenin subunits (LMW-GS) are a component of the gluten network and play a key role in determining the viscoelastic properties of wheat dough. Aegilops species have been shown to be an important source of variation for valuable traits for wheat breeding. However, very little is known about LMW-GS genes in section Sitopsis spec...

Grain hardness is directly related to the damaged starch amount produced during the milling process and to dough water absorption and viscosity. This trait is controlled by the puroindolines genes (Pin-D1) located on the 5DS chromosome. Forty-five landraces from Andalusia (Southern Spain) were analyzed for grain hardness by NIR (predicted particle...

Forty-six landraces from Andalusia, region in southern Spain, were characterized for plant, spike and grain morphology and for HMWGs and LMWGs composition. Up to five botanical varieties were identified among these materials based in four morphological traits. According to grain colour, nine accessions showed heterogeneity. The remaining morphologi...

Key message: Two novel Wx - B1 null alleles that enlarge the genetic variability for this wheat gene were characterized, whose effects on wheat quality could be different to those of the Wx - B1b allele. The starch composition of wheat grain has a primary influence on flour quality. Wheat starch consists of two types of glucose polymers: amylose (...

Key message A high level of genetic diversity was found in LMW-i genes from Triticum urartu, resulting in detection of 11 novel alleles. The variability detected could affect gluten quality. Abstract Low-molecular weight glutenin subunits are important in determining the viscoelastic properties of wheat dough. Triticum urartu Thum. ex Gandil.,...

Storage proteins of wheat, rye, barley and, to a lesser extent, oats contain epitopes responsible for triggering the celiac disease (CD). In recent decades an increased frequency of CD has been observed, and though the reasons for this increase are unclear, modern plant breeding has attracted criticism attributing to the new varieties a part of the...

The gluten proteins from wheat, barley and rye are responsible both for celiac disease (CD) and for non-celiac gluten sensitivity, two pathologies affecting up to 6-8% of the human population worldwide. The wheat α-gliadin proteins contain three major CD immunogenic peptides: the p31-43, which induces the innate immune response; the 33-mer, formed...

The Wx gene, which encodes waxy proteins, is the sole gene responsible for amylose synthesis in wheat seed endosperm. In this study, we characterized, at the molecular level, several Wx alleles in durum wheat (Triticum turgidum L. ssp. durum Desf.) that had previously been catalogued at the protein level. Our data show a misclassification of the al...

Several studies have suggested a minor role in determining grain endosperm texture for the Gsp-1 gene, although appears related with the synthesis of the arabinogalactan-peptide. The current study evaluated the allelic variability of Gsp-1 genes in five diploid species of the Aegilops genus along with the molecular characterization of the main alle...

Starch is composed of two glucose polymers: amylose, formed by long linear chains, and amylopectin, which is larger and highly branched. The ratio between the two polymers (usually 22%–35% amylose, 68%–75% amylopectin) affects the starch properties, thereby determining different aspects of wheat quality. Waxy protein, which is the sole enzyme respo...

The Wx gene encodes the granule-bound starch synthase I or waxy protein, which is the sole enzyme responsible for amylose synthesis in wheat seeds. Triticum urartu and einkorn, which are related to the A genome of bread wheat, could be important sources of variation for this gene. This study evaluated the Wx gene variability in 52 accessions of the...

Wx gene encodes for the granule-bound starch synthase I or waxy protein, which is the sole enzyme responsible for amylose synthesis in wheat seeds. The Aegilops species, which are related to wheat, could be important sources of variation in this gene. In addition to its role in starch quality, this gene has been used in phylogenetic studies of whea...

Grain texture is an important trait in wheat quality, and is related to the presence or absence of puroindolines a and b. In barley, these proteins are synthesised by the Hordoindoline (Hin) genes, orthologs of the Puroindoline (Pin) genes present in bread wheat and Aegilops species. In this study, the variation of Hin genes has been characterized...

Grain hardness is an important quality trait in wheat. This trait is related to the variation in, and the presence of, puroindolines (PINA and PINB). This variation can be increased by the allelic polymorphism present in the Aegilops species that are related to wheat. This study evaluated allelic Pina and Pinb gene variability in five diploid speci...

Many studies have suggested that the true variation of high-molecular-weight (HMW) glutenin subunits in wheat could be under-estimated due to the anomalous mobility of these proteins in one-dimensional electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). An alternative technique used is the specific PCR amplification of these genes, however the scarce variation in size amo...

The wild diploid wheat (Triticum urartu Thum. ex Gandil.) is a potential gene source for wheat breeding, as this species has been identified as the A-genome donor in polyploid wheats. One important wheat breeding trait is bread-making quality, which is associated in bread wheat (T. aestivum ssp. aestivum L. em. Thell.) with the high-molecular-weigh...

Grain hardness is a major factor determining milling performance of common wheat. It determines the amount of damaged starch generated during milling, and therefore the end use of a given variety. One hundred and two lines from 15 Mexican wheat landraces were analyzed for grain hardness and for its genetic control. Sixteen lines were hard and 86 we...

The forests of Nothofagus glauca are located in the mediterranean zone of central Chile. Its elimination to enable soil for agricultural, forestry, more cattle use as well as the utilization of its wood for fuelwood and coal, reduced drastically its surface. Forests of N. glauca, that are located in the Coast and Andes chain mountain of the central...

Wheat (Triticum sp.) is one of the most important food crops worldwide. Di-, tetra- and hexaploid species are available, which along with the different subspecies of this genus have been used for food and feed. However, the genetic diversity of this crop has been seriously compromised, and only two main species; the durum and bread wheat, currently...

Starch composition which is dependent on the waxy protein, the enzyme responsible for amylose synthesis in the grain, is an important aspect of the wheat quality. In this report, we describe the characterization of a novel Wx-A1 allele (Wx-A1g formerly known as -Wx-A1a) in Spanish spelt wheat lines which is responsible for a remarkable decline in t...

Background and AimsWaxy proteins are responsible for amylose synthesis in wheat seeds, being encoded by three waxy genes (Wx-A1, Wx-B1 and Wx-D1) in hexaploid wheat. In addition to their role in starch quality, waxy loci have been used to study the phylogeny of wheat. The origin of European spelt (Triticum aestivum ssp. spelta) is not clear. This s...

Global Change, a result of human action on ecosystems, is one of the majorproblems to face humanity at the present time. For crops, this means that there will be aneed to find or create new cultivars able to adapt to a changing environment, without areduction in nutritional standards or industrial quality. The quality characteristics ofwheat depend...

Granule Bound Starch Synthase I, or waxy protein, is the sole enzyme responsible for the accumulation of amylose during the development of starch granules in wheat. The full coding region of the waxy (Wx) gene was sequenced in Triticum urartu, (a wild diploid species) and is related to the A genome of polyploid wheats. The Wx gene of T. urartu (Wx-...

Grain hardness is one of the most important characteristics of wheat quality. Soft endosperm is associated with the presence of two proteins in the wild form, puroindoline a and b. The puroindoline genes and their derived proteins are present in the putative wheat diploid ancestors which are thought to be the donors of the A, B and D genomes in com...