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

Fourteen durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf.) cultivars introduced in Italy between 1900 and 1990 were grown for 2 years (2001 and 2002) at Foggia (Italy) in field trials with three agronomic treatments in order to assess the genetic improvement in agronomic and qualitative parameters. The traits were measured in the field to describe the biomass production and its partitioning to the grain, the phenological behaviours and the photosynthetic properties. Grain protein content, alveograph's W-index, carotenoid pigments content, ash content and the glutenin and gliadin subunit compositions were then measured to assess grain quality. The results showed that differences in agronomic traits among durum wheat cultivars released in Italy in the last century are generally similar to differences observed in hexaploid wheat, with an annual genetic yield gain of 19.9 kg ha(-1) year(-1). The genetic gain was most clearly associated with a higher kernels number m(-2) indicating a larger grain-sink size and a higher number of spikes m(-2). The gradual reduction in plant height associated with an increased harvest index has represented the main breeding goal with an effect on the sink capacity and on the biomass partitioning. The progressive incorporation into recent cultivars, of favourable alleles (7 + 8 glutenin subunit composition) coding for superior quality subunits reflects the improvement in pasta making quality of the recent genotypes. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.