Investigation of Aegilops umbellulata for stripe rust resistance, heading date, and the contents of iron, zinc, and gluten protein

Aegilops umbellulata(UU) is a wheat wild relative that has potential use in the genetic improvement of wheat. In this study, 46Ae. umbellulataaccessions were investigated for stripe rust resistance, heading date (HD), and the contents of iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), and seed gluten proteins. Forty-two of the accessions were classified as resistant to stripe rust, while the other four accessions were classified as susceptible to stripe rust in four environments. The average HD ofAe. umbellulatawas significantly longer than that of threecommon wheatcultivars (180.9 dvs. 137.0 d), with the exception of PI226500 (138.9 d). TheAe. umbellulataaccessions also showed high variability in Fe (69.74–348.09 mg kg–1) and Zn (49.83–101.65 mg kg–1) contents. Three accessions (viz., PI542362, PI542363, and PI554399) showed relatively higher Fe (230.96–348.09 mg kg–1) and Zn (92.46–101.65 mg kg–1) contents than the others. The Fe content ofAe. umbellulatawas similar to those ofAe. comosaandAe. markgrafiibut higher than those ofAe. tauschiiand common wheat.Aegilops umbellulatashowed a higher Zn content thanAe. tauschii,Ae. comosa, and common wheat, but a lower content thanAe. markgrafii. Furthermore,Ae. umbellulatahad the highest proportion of γ-gliadin among all the species investigated (Ae. umbellulata vs. other species=mean 72.11%vs. 49.37%; range: 55.33–86.99%vs. 29.60–67.91%). These results demonstrated thatAe. umbellulataexhibits great diversity in the investigated traits, so it can provide a potential gene pool for the genetic improvement of these traits in wheat.