Breeding progress in morpho-physiological, agronomical and qualitative traits of durum wheat cultivars released in Italy during the 20th century

Agronomic, nutritional and nutraceutical aspects of durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf.) cultivars under low input agricultural management

“…The wheat varieties investigated evidently differed in plant height. During the 1970s, breeding programs introduced the dwarf habitus in the Italian varieties through the introgression of the short-straw genes (Rht) of Norin 10 (Triticum aestivum L.) (De Vita et al, 2007a, 2007b. In the present study, modern varieties showed plant height values ranging from 66.9 cm (Anco Marzio) to 80.0 cm (Svevo).…”

“…The highest yield value was obtained for the old variety Urria 12 (4.0 t/ha) along with other durum wheat genotypes, such as Iride (3.8 t/ha), Orobel (3.9 t/ha), Solex (3.9 t/ha) and Svevo (3.9 t/ha). The lowest pro- (Quaranta et al, 2010;De Vita et al, 2007b;Giunta et al, 2007). These studies described high variability comparing durum wheat varieties released before and after the Second World War, reporting a significant rise in productivity of the newest varieties due to increasing spike fertility and density (spikes per square metre).…”

“…After the Green Revolution (in the 1970s), the dwarf genes were introduced in Italy through breeding between the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) short straw lines and local durum wheat varieties. This led to new durum wheat cultivars with high yield and improved technological quality (De Vita et al, 2007a, 2007b. Selection procedures were carried out to obtain genotypes that perform well under intensive crop management, but their adaptability to organic and low-input farming was never considered.…”

The colours of durum wheat: a review

“…This was followed only at the end of the last Century by improvements to end-use quality attributes such as gluten strength and endosperm carotenoids (Clarke et al 2010). In Italy, until the mid-1990s, selection for YPC did not receive particular attention from breeders, as demonstrated by the results of De Vita et al (2007) and as previously reported by Digesù et al (2009). However, the most recent durum wheat varieties released in the last decade show significantly higher YPC than the old varieties released before the 1970s (Digesù et al 2009).…”

Development of a method for the direct fermentation of semolina by selected sourdough lactic acid bacteria

“…These results are mainly imputable to the different semolina characteristics. On the other hand, it is well known that plant breeding activities conducted on the species in the last decades has led to a considerable grain yield increase but has consistently modified the semolina quality and particularly the protein content and gluten properties influencing strength, extensibility, and toughness (De Vita et al, 2007;Ruisi et al, 2015).…”