Selección para contenido de proteína del grano en trigo irradiado con rayos gamma de 60Co

this study was conducted in response to the need to improve wheat (triticum aestivum l.) varieties with a high nutritional quality. a selection for greatest protein content was carried out on irradiated composites selected during six seasons considering a greater grain size and grain density. seven composites were subjected to two irradiation levels. they differed in five irradiation generations and 74 kr of accumulated doses, except for one with a difference of 73 kr. they came from the salamanca variety irradiated with gamma rays of cobalt sixty (60co). the selection was made from m6 and m11 plants, and the selected lines were evaluated over two seasons at montecillo, state of mexico. the protein content tended to be normal, with a mean, interval and variance of 13.1%, 11.6 to 15.8% and 0.45, respectively. the 'salamanca' had 11.5%. with the second irradiation level, the mean (13.1%), maximum value (15.8%), variance (0.51) and number of lines (9) with more than 14.6% protein, exceeded those of the first level, of which the values were 12.9 %, 15.0 %, 0.41 and 3. the three high lines corresponded to the second irradiation level, with protein from 14.9 to 15.3 % and with minimum and maximum values exceeding the protein content of 'salamanca' by 19.2 and 22.4%, respectively. the protein and grain yield correlation was negative (r = -0.59) and highly significant; the high protein content lines yielded less than 'salamanca'. the lines had a greater grain volume and weight than 'salamanca', but almost the same density.