Improvement of durum wheat grain quality: Breeding

The processing quality of durum wheat, and our understanding of the factors that determine quality, has improved greatly in the last two decades. This was accomplished despite limited knowledge of the mode of inheritance and heritability of quality traits. The improvements in quality largely result from intercrossing existing cultivars and elite lines. Efficiency of breeding has been improved through new technologies such as Near Infrared Reflectance Spectroscopy for measurement of protein concentration and colour factors, with future potential to predict milling yield and protein quality. Protein subunit markers are used to screen early generation populations for quality potential where appropriate subunit differences are present. DNA markers are being developed, and could become a significant new toot for selection in future. There is extensive genetic diversity for the major pasta quality traits of protein concentration, protein quality, and colour factors in durum and near relatives that remains largely unused. Discovery, introgression and evaluation of this diversity is a major endeavor. New breeding tools, particularly development of doubled-haploid populations, will facilitate further genetic analysis of both novel and traditional quality traits. In the near future, genetic transformation technology will make similar contributions. Consumer interest in nutrition and health safety aspects of food, combined with signs of reduced pasta consumption in some nations, suggest that the durum industry should focus research and cultivar development on addressing these concerns. There is genetic potential to improve the nutritional quality of durum through conventional breeding techniques.