A hundred winter wheat and 41 spring wheat cultivars and advanced lines were used to investigate the distribution of grain hardness in Chinese wheats and correlations between grain hardness and other kernel traits. P1, P2, F1, F2 and F3 from three crosses, i. e. , Liken2/Yumai2, 85Zhong33/Wenmai6 and 85Zhong33/95Zhong459 were sown to study the genetics of grain hardness. Significant correlation was observed between hardness measured by Single Kernel Characteristic System 4100 (SKCS 4100) and Near Infrared (NIR) Spectroscopy, r ranging from 0. 85 to 0.94. Chinese wheat is a mixed population in terms of hardness, ranging from very soft to very hard. For autumn-sown wheat, on average, grain hardness decreases from north to south and spring-sown wheat is dominant with hard type. Hardness is negatively associated with flour color, and its associations with flour yield and ash content differ in winter and spring wheats. Grain hardness is controlled by a major gene and several minor genes with additive effect mostly, but dominant effect is also observed, with heritability of 0.78.
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