Abstract: High water absorbing capacity of pentosans is an important parameter to affect processing quality of common wheat. Seventeen genotypes of soft wheat were sown in three locations for two years to study the genetic variation of the water-soluble pentosans (WSP), water-insoluble pentosans (WIP), and total pentosans (TP), to investigate the effects of genotype, environment and their interaction on pentosans, and to determine the relationships between pentosans and other quality parameters. Significant difference in pentosans contents were observed in soft wheat genotypes, the range for WSP, WIP and TP were 0.54%-1.07%, 0.87%-1.43% and 1.51%-2.47%, respectively. They were mainly influenced by genotype and environment, and genotype was the most important factor determining WSP, and the effect of genotype and environment interaction was not significant. The WSP, WIP, and TP were positively correlated with Fairnograph water absorption, and the correlation coefficients were 0.51, 0.55 and 0.66, respectively. WSP was negatively correlated with peak viscosity, hold through, final viscosity, and peak time, and the correlation coefficients were -0.72, -0.72, -0.66 and -0.70, respectively. WSP and TP were negatively correlated with cookie width, the correlation coefficients were -0.70 and -0.69, respectively. Therefore, it is suggested that low pentosans are preferred for soft wheat cultivars.

Key words: Common wheat, Pentosans, Genetic variation, Cookie quality