| Purple grain in hexaploid wheat L.G.L. Copp Crop Research Division, D.S.I.R., Christchurch, New Zealand A stable hexaploid wheat with purple grain colour has been obtained from the cross Triticum dicoccmn var. Arraseita Perc. x Triticum aestivum L.. Caporn, J. of Genetics Vol. 7, 1917-18 and Sharinan, Nature Vol. 181, 1958 have described crosses made between purple grained wheats and other tetraploids. Three wheats with purple grain colour, originally from Abyssinia, were obtained from the Plant Breeding Institute, Cambridge, England, in 1930, and have been maintained at the Crop Research Division as part of the Wheat Collection. Crosses were made between all three of these wheats and several commercial hexaploid varieties, but only one purple variety, Stn. No. E450, produced viable seed after the second backcross. Only the cross with the white-grained variety Arawa produced lines maintaining the purple colour after the third backcross. Additional backcrosses to Arawa were made but there was a progressive weakening of the purple colour in the plants following each backcross. After three further backcrosses, however, using the red-grained commercial variety Hilgendorf as the recurrent parent we have obtained dark-purple-grained hexaploid wheat plants, (E 450 x 3 Arawa) x 3 Hilgendorf, which are stable in F5. Lines of this material, in which the colour is as intense as in the original tetraploid wheat, have been sown in a field trial for the assessment of yield and baking quality. |