Production of hexaploid and tetraploid waxy lines

Waxy proteins are a group of proteins coded by genes located on the chromosome?7 A, 7D and 4A (Wx-A1 Wx-D1, W,-B1 loci) of cultivated wheat which are responsible for the amylose synthesis of the starch endosperm. Electrophoretic separations carried out on different varieties, lines and accessions of bread and durum wheat, have permitted the detection of new null alleles at each of the W,-1 loci. The amplification of waxy gene fragments by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique has been performed on the same materials in the attempt to detect further polymorphism and to ascertain the cause of the lack expression of the null genotypes. Furthemore, the single null forms detected at each locus have been used to produce bread and durum wheat lines carrying different level of deficiency for these proteins in order to develop material to be used to understand the influence of different amylose content on the technological and qualitative properties of flour and semolina.