Characterization of wheat cultivars for pre-harvest sprouting

sprouting or germination in wheat takes place as a result of the rupture of the dormancy in grain, expressed in physiological terms as the increase of α-amylases and proteases activity, which has been associated with low values of falling number. grain sprouting has been related with high moisture and temperature at harvest and it is a serious problem in the north of argentina. the objectives of this study were to characterize introduced and local wheat cultivars for sprouting response through falling number and, tentatively, to identify adapted materials with good behavior for this trait. a set of thirty introduced and local late and early heading wheat varieties was tested through falling number in two experiments conducted at marcos juárez, argentina in 2005 and 2006. significant differences in falling number between tested cultivars were detected with a strong interaction with environment. late heading cultivars introductions showed significantly higher falling number values than local cultivars, and early heading cultivars introductions and local cultivars showed similar values. in the early heading cultivars group, the highest falling number value was observed in klein proteo, a local cultivar.