Abstract: T study was conducted to determine characteristics of Tir wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). For this purpose, 255 lines were collected from 7 different areas. Spike density, awnedness, glume glaucocity, grain colour, glume colour and vitreous characters were investigated in the lines. After the first year`s observation, the number of lines was decreased to 90 lines. Glume colour had the greatest variation among investigated characters. The lines had 11 different glume colour groups. There were completely similar lines among the selected 90 lines, however, the vitreous characters of several lines were found to be different. It was concluded that there were different types of Tir wheat and these types might be a useful genetic resource. However, the lines have to be examined by new research for quality and yield.
INTRODUCTION
Wheat is the most important crop in Lake Van Basin due to the climatic conditions and traditional agricultural system. However, grain yield per unit area is almost half of Turkey’s average (Anonymous, 1998). In the Lake Van Basin, agricultural techniques are not used properly for wheat growing. Another problem is absence of high yielding wheat varieties in Van conditions and also it is not possible to enlarge the wheat growing area in order to increase wheat production in Van. Therefore, grain yield of wheat per unit area should be increased.
Many adaptation studies were done in the area. According to the these studies, Tir wheat was the only one recognizable type among the other varieties and lines (Doğan et al., 1980; Yılmaz, 1989; Ülker et al., 1994; Yılmaz et al., 1994). Some varieties and lines were higher yielding than Tir wheat, but their yields were not stable (Ülker et al., 1994).
The baking quality of Tir wheat is moderate, but people living in Van region mostly prefer this kind of wheat for baking products.
Tir wheat (Triticum aestivum L. ssp.) (Hoffmann et al., 1985) is a population of bread wheat grown around The Lake Van Basin for centuries. It has a large variation concerning many traits and this is an advantage for breeding new varieties (Demir et al., 1986), especially for Van Region. Therefore, the primarily desired traits, such as drought and cold resistance, disease resistance, yield and quality should be taken into consideration for culture of Tir wheat in Van region.
There are no wheat breading researches in Van, except wheat adaptation researches and this study was aimed to reveal some traits of Tir wheat and to help future researches about it.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Tir wheat types were collected from The Lake Van Basin (37°55’-39°24’ N; 42°05’-44°22’). Altitude of this region is between 1600-2000 m and the region has surrounding mountains. Average annual precipitation is 300-600 mm.
In the present study, Tir wheat was used. It had a strong stem, was resistant to a lot of diseases and gives good yield in the location. However, these desired traits degenerated when it was out of the region (Yılmaz and Tahir, 1987). Tir wheat is locally named as “akbuğday”, “kırmızı buğday” and “karakılçık” etc., in the region.
The study was started by collecting spikes from farmers’ fields in The Lake Van Basin in 1991. First, 255 spikes were selected in Van, Erciş, Muradiye, Özalp, Adilcevaz, Ahlat, Tatvan and Patnos provinces and grains from these were planted in autumn (September) 1992. Grain yield, yield components (unpresented data), spike density, awnedness, glume glaucocity, grain colour, glume colour and vitreousness were observed in following years (1993-94, 1994-95, 1995-96 and 1996-97). 105 high yielding lines were selected. 15 Lines were eliminated because of winter damage between 1993-94 and 1994-95. Afterwards, the investigation was carried out with 90 lines. Results of grain yield and yield components were presented in another paper (Sönmez and Ulker, 1998).
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
One of 90 lines was obtained from Patnos, 12, 18, 14, 29, 11 and 5 of 90 lines were gathered from Van, Erciş, Özalp, Adilcevaz, Ahlat and Tatvan, respectively (Table 1)
The classification of lines in terms of traits is shown Table 2. Among 90 lines, 25 had dense spike, 41 had medium spike, 24 had lax spike. The results implied that environmental conditions affected spike density.
Among the lines, 30 lines had long awns, 4 had medium long awns, 55 had short awns, 1 line was awn less which was collected from Tatvan (Tatvan + 70/5). All of the lines except 3 had glaucous glume . Nonglaucous glume lines were obtained from Van (Table 1).
Grain colour and vitreousness are important quality factors. The lines had a large variation for these traits. 34 Lines had white grain colour, 29 had amber grain, 21 had yellow grain and 6 lines had red grain colour. 37 Lines had vitreous grain, 35 lines had soft grain and 18 lines had mixed vitreous and soft grains.
| Table 1: | Some traits of Tir wheat lines collected from The Lake Van Basin |
| * LA: Long awned, SA: Short awned, MLA: Medium long awned ** B-R: Brown-Red, B-Y: Brown-Yellow, Bl-Y: Black-Yellow, Y-V: Yellow-Violet, V-Bl: Violet-Black, W-Bl: White-Black, R-V: Red-Violet, B-Bl: Brown-Black *** P. vitreous: Partial vitreous | |
| Table 2: | Distribution of the lines according to the investigated traits |
| *B-R: Brown-Red, B-Y: Brown-Yellow, Bl-Y: Black-Yellow, Y-V: Yellow-Violet, V-Bl: Violet-Black, W-Bl: White-Black, R-V: Red-Violet, B-Bl: Brown-Black | |
Glume colour was the most variable among the investigated traits. Eleven different glume colours were determined. Violet-black glume colour lines were commonly observed.
Many different types of wheat were determined from Tir wheat, however, a few of them were of same type. For example, line 15, 139 and 142 from Özalp, Line 167 and 170 from Erciş had the same characters (Table 1). Line 96 (from Adilcevaz), line 49 and 227 (from Van) also had similar properties.
On the other hand, different glume colour and grain vitreousness were commonly observed traits among the lines, while spike density, glume glaucocity and grain colour were a few observed traits. In spite of the most of the lines were collected from Adilcevaz, there were no similar lines, except lines 232 and 287. Which only differed in grain vitreousness. It was observed that there was the same situation between line 3 (from Adilcevaz) and line 136 (from Özalp); between line 90 (from Adilcevaz) and line 80 (from Ahlat); between line 284 (from Adilcevaz) and line 73 (from Erciş). The differences between the lines for grain vitreousness probably depend on genetic and/or environmental factors (Kün, 1988; Sencar at al., 1994).
Glume colour was the most variable character among the observed traits. It is not known whether the differences among the lines depend on genetic factors or not. Because variation of glume colour may be affected from extreme climatic conditions.
In the first evaluation, 90 lines were selected as promising among 255 lines. In addition 85 of 90 lines were found different from each other and it is not possible to say that these lines are different genetically or not. However, Yılmaz and Tahir (1987) determined that Tir wheat from Ahlat town contained 32 different types.
The result of this study indicates that Tir wheat population is a good potential resource for breeding new varieties, especially for Van ecological conditions. Further research should be focused on genetic differences for morphological characteristics, disease resistance and quality factors.