Abstract
Kernel texture is a major determinant of end-use quality of wheat. Durum wheat is known for itsvery hard texture, which influences how it is milled and for what products it is well suited. Wedeveloped soft kernel durum wheat lines via Ph1b-mediated homoeologous recombination with Dr.Leonard Joppa. The Hardness locus from Chinese Spring was successfully transferred to cv. Svevodurum wheat; Svevo was back-crossed 3 times to produce ‘Soft Svevo’ (Morris et al. 2011). SoftSvevo had SKCS kernel hardness, break flour yield, flour starch damage, and flour particle size similarto soft hexaploid wheat (Murray et al. 2016). Compared to Svevo, Soft Svevo had much reducedSolvent Retention Capacity (SRC) -water, -carbonate, and -sucrose; whereas SRC-lactic acid wassimilar to Svevo. Similarly, Mixograph, Farinograph and Alveograph results indicated much reducedwater absorption, but similar gluten strength. Cookie diameter of Soft Svevo was markedly largerand similar to soft wheat (Murray et al. 2017). The energy required to produce flour was dramaticallyreduced: 624±200 kJ/kg flour for Svevo vs. 146±20 kJ/kg flour for Soft Svevo. When Soft Svevo wascrossed to 10 CIMMYT durum parents, half-sib families and full-sib lines within families showedsignificant differences in SKCS hardness, break flour and total flour yields, starch damage, SRCwater,-carbonate, -sucrose, and -lactic acid, and flour SDS sedimentation volume. Cookie diametersranged from 8.68 to 9.57 cm. Mean bread loaf volumes for families ranged from 680 to 838 cm3.Results illustrate the significant effect of the Puroindoline genes and the Hardness locus on kerneltexture and end-use quality, and demonstrate that soft kernel durum wheat has properties similarto soft hexaploid wheat. Further, the hard durum parent has a significant effect on end-use qualitytraits by contributing superior alleles for soft wheat milling, flour properties, dough and breadquality.