Registration of ‘Cara’ Soft White Winter Club Wheat

Club wheat (Triticum aestivum ssp. compactum) is an important component of the export grain market for the Pacific Northwest. Our objective was to develop a club wheat cultivar with resistance to stripe rust (caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici Westend.) and strawbreaker foot rot [caused by Oculimacula yallundae Crous & W. Gams (Wallwork & Spooner) and O. acuformis (Boerema, R. Pieters & Hamers) Crous. & W. Gams] and with the end-use qualities that make club wheat a specialty product. The bulk pedigree breeding method was used to select ‘Cara’ (Reg. No. CV-1078, PI 643435) from the cross WA7752//WA6581/WA7217 made in 1992. Cara is a semidwarf wheat with the Rht-D1b dwarfing allele. Cara has winter hardiness equal to that of other club wheat cultivars—Bruehl, Chukar, and Coda—but less than the soft white wheat cultivars Eltan (PI 536994) or Masami (PI 634715). Cara was evaluated in multi-environment replicated plot trials in the Washington since 2003. Grain yields were equal to or better than other club and soft white cultivars in the 30to 40-cm and the 40to 50-cm annual precipitation zones. The milling and baking quality of Cara was equal to those of the best club wheat check cultivars. Cara is resistant to all races of stripe rust prevalent since 2001, possessing Yr17 and unknown genes for stripe rust resistance. It is also resistant to strawbreaker foot rot, possessing Pch1. Cara provides growers with an agronomically competitive cultivar with resistance to stripe rust and strawbreaker foot rot plus excellent club wheat end-use quality. K. Garland-Campbell, A. Burke, X. Chen, C. Morris, D. See, and D. Engle, USDA-ARS, Wheat Genetics, Quality, Physiology and Disease Research Unit, 209 Johnson Hall, Washington State Univ., Pullman WA 99164-6420; R.E. Allan, L.M. Little, J. Pritchett, and D. Wood (all retired), USDA-ARS, Wheat Genetics, Quality, Physiology and Disease Research Unit, 209 Johnson Hall, Washington State Univ., Pullman WA 99164-6420; J. Anderson, Dep. of Agronomy and Plant Genetics, Univ. of Minnesota, 411 Borlaug Hall, 1991 Upper Buford Cir., St. Paul, MN 55108-6026; N. Blake, Connell Grain Growers, 3132 Road O NE, Moses Lake, WA 98837; C. Hoagland, Dep. of Agronomy, Purdue Univ., 915 West State St., West Lafayette, IN 479072054; C. Walker and S. Guy, Dep. of Crop and Soil Sciences, Box 646420, Washington State Univ., Pullman, WA 99164-6420; J. Chatelain, Oregon State Univ., Columbia Basin Agricultural Research Center, 48037 Tubbs Ranch Rd., P.O. Box 370, Pendleton, OR 97801; T. Murray and H. Wetzel, Dep. of Plant Pathology, Box 646430, Washington State Univ., Pullman, WA 99164-6430. *Corresponding author (kgcamp@wsu.edu). Abbreviations: PNW, Pacific Northwest; WSU, Washington State Univ. Club wheat (Triticum aestivum ssp. compactum) comprises 5 to 10% of the winter wheat crop in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho (USDA-NASS, 2011). Club wheat has a unique spike morphology, conditioned by the dominant compactum (C) locus on chromosome 2DL (Johnson et al., 2008), that results in redistribution of yield components. Club cultivars tend to have smaller seeds than lax cultivars. Although the rachis length and spike are shorter than in lax genotypes, the spikelet fertility and number of seeds per spike is greater in club wheat (Zwer et al., 1995). Club wheat is marketed as a value-added product to the countries in the Asian rim as a component of the Western White wheat market class (a blend of the soft white wheat subclasses soft white wheat plus 10 to 20% white club wheat [USDA, 2006]). Western White is valued for its consistent excellent cakeand cookiebaking qualities and frequently commands a premium over other soft wheat market classes. Because of the established market based on end-use quality, club wheat cultivars have consistently been bred to have greater flour extraction and break flour yields, higher starch content, and greater stability for low starch damage than soft white winter wheat (Lin and Czuchajowska, 1997; Morris et al., 2005). Flour milled from club wheat has the low viscosity and weak gluten quality that is desired for air-leavened cake products. Club wheat acreage in Washington and Oregon state is largely planted to two cultivars developed by Washington State University (WSU) and the USDA-ARS: Bruehl Published in the Journal of Plant Registrations. doi: 10.3198/jpr2012.01.0005crc Received 5 Jan. 2012. Registration by CSSA. © Crop Science Society of America 5585 Guilford Rd., Madison, WI 53711 USA All rights reserved. No part of this periodical may be reproduced or trans mitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Permission for printing and for reprinting the material contained herein has been obtained by the publisher.