Patent ID: 8735649

Claim:
A method of producing a tetraploid or hexaploid wheat plant, or part thereof, exhibiting reduced waxy enzyme activity compared to a wild type wheat plant or part thereof, said method comprising the steps of: a) obtaining plant material from a parent wheat plant, wherein the parent wheat plant comprises two or more wild-type waxy genes; b) creating mutagenized plant material by inducing at least one mutation in each of the at least two waxy genes of the parent plant material, wherein said mutations are induced by treating the wheat plant material with a mutagen; c) analyzing the mutagenized wheat plant material, or a progeny wheat plant produced from the mutagenized wheat plant material, to identify a plant having at least one mutation in each of the at least two waxy genes, wherein said analysis is performed by isolating genomic DNA from the mutagenized wheat plant material, or a progeny wheat plant produced from the mutagenized wheat plant material, and amplifying segments of a waxy gene in the isolated genomic DNA by using primers specific to the waxy gene or to the DNA sequences adjacent to the waxy gene, wherein one of the at least two mutated waxy genes being identified encodes a protein comprising a A468V mutation in SEQ ID NO: 4, and one of the at least two mutated waxy genes being identified encodes a protein comprising a Q197* truncation mutation in SEQ ID NO: 6; and d) producing a tetraploid or hexaploid progeny wheat plant from the mutagenized wheat plant material or the progeny wheat plant produced from the mutagenized wheat plant material, each comprising the at least two mutated waxy genes as identified in step c), wherein the A468V mutation in SEQ ID NO: 4 and the Q197* truncation mutation in SEQ ID NO: 6 cause a reduction waxy enzyme activity in the progeny wheat plant compared to the parent wheat plant of step a), as indicated by a reduced level of amylose in the progeny wheat plant or a part thereof.