¿How yield, milling and baking quality are affected by the presence of Puccinia graminis and Zymoseptoria tritici in bread wheat grown under different environmental conditions?

Abstract

Foliar diseases decrease yields and modify the wheat crop quality. The aim of this work was to analyze the effects caused by the presence of a biotrophic pathogen such as Puccinia graminis and a hemibiotrophic one such as Zymoseptoria tritici, in a commercial wheat cultivar with high yield potential, on yield, and grain milling and breadmaking attributes under different field environments (generated across years and across sowing dates). Yield, number of grains per unit area and grain weight were mostly reduced when P.graminis was the predominant disease. Although in almost all environments milling yield, grain and flour protein, as well as wet and dry gluten were reduced by the two diseases, the greatest reduction were observed on infected crops with P.graminis. The presence of Zymoseptoria tritici did not affect the breadmaking quality, but when P.graminis was the predominant diseases most of the alveogram parameters were reduced, but surprisingly loaf volume was not significantly affected by biotrophic disease. Thus, the lack of the association between dough strength and loaf volume suggest that diseases affect other parameters (e.g., proportions of gliadin and glutenin) that could alter other properties beyond the traditional milling and breadmaking parameters.