The Project’s pre-breeding work with durum wheat (Triticum durum) is being carried out by a team consisting of the University of Nottingham, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), and the Directorate of Wheat Research in India. The durum wheat project is expected to take place between 2014 and 2018.
Durum wheat is a tetraploid species of wheat that is used to produce pasta and many types of bread. It significantly out-yields bread wheat cultivars in certain areas such as the dry highlands of North Africa and the Middle East, and approximately 11 million hectares globally are currently sown with durum wheat varieties every year. In certain parts of the world, such as India, North Africa, and the Middle East, durum products make up more than seven meals each week per person. Durum is thus an important crop that contributes significantly to global food security.
The objective of this pre-breeding work is to transfer genetic traits from wild wheat species that have already been introduced into hexaploid wheat into durum wheat, with the goal of developing superior, high-yield durum varieties that are well adapted to the changing environment. This pre-breeding work will focus on ten of the wild relatives of wheat: Triticum urartu, Triticum timopheevii, Aegilops speltoides, Aegilops mutica, Aegilops mutica, Aegilops caudate, Secale cereal, Thinopyrum elongatum, Thinopyrum bessarabicum, Thynopyrum intermedium, and Thinopyrum ponticum. The durum wheat lines developed through this work will be evaluated for a wide range of traits including disease resistance, yield potential, heat tolerance, and drought tolerance.
