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Screening of Wheat for Flour Swelling Volume by Near-Infrared Spectroscopy

¹Department of Agriculture and Food Western Australia, Locked Bag No. 4, Bentley Delivery Center, WA 6983, Australia. ²Corresponding author. E-mail: gcrosbie@agric.wa.gov.au ³BRI Research, P.O. Box 7, North Ryde, NSW 2113, Australia.

Selection for starch quality is an important consideration in the breeding of wheat for Asian noodles, particularly Japanese udon, and the flour swelling volume (FSV) test was developed for this purpose. Near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) analysis has also been a key tool in recent years in wheat quality selection. The development and validation of NIRS calibrations for the prediction of FSV on whole grain involved 22 cultivars and breeding lines grown at four locations in two seasons. Eight calibrations were developed, each based on samples from seven trials, with the eighth trial used for validation. Over the eight calibrations, r² between predicted and actual values was 0.56–0.86 (mean 0.74) and the standard error of prediction (SEP) was 0.77–1.65 (mean 1.14) mL/g of dry meal. Separate calibrations were also developed for hard (n = 461), soft (n = 150), and soft+hard grain (n = 616), with standard errors of cross-validation (SECV) of 1.03, 1.39, and 1.21 mL/g of dry meal, respectively. Corresponding r² between predicted and actual values were 0.76, 0.78, and 0.76, respectively. Thus, NIRS offers good potential for the screening of early-generation lines to identify those with high or low FSV.