Genetic methods of improving wheat quality of durucaltivars adapted to climate conditions of Russia with special accent on commercial characteristics of grain

Economic reforms carried out in Russia in the 90 years of the 20th century led to a significant reduction in the acreage under durum wheat and a significant drop in consumption of processed products. A large number of pasta and grouts were produced at that time from inexpensive soft wheat. The quality, nutritional and dietary value of these products is considerably inferior to products to those from durum wheat. In the same period, the import of high-quality pasta has increased, mainly from Italy. At the same time, the climate and fertile soils of the steppe regions of Russia allow producing enough grain to meet domestic needs and export it to the countries of the European Union where the grain of durum wheat is the only import product that is not taxed and has a premium price. Despite these conditions, high competition and requirements for grain quality complicate the access of domestic producers to the EU market. The main obstacle in this case are the European requirements for the quality of gluten, which significantly differ from the standards of the Russian standard, in accordance with which the cultivars of durum wheat are created in Russia. In connection with this contradiction (the good climate and production opportunities on the one hand and the lack of adapted cultivars of required quality on the other), the current selection and genetic direction should be recognized as the creation of domestic varieties with high quality gluten, satisfying the requirements of the European market. The practical implementation of this direction is the aim of the studies presented in this publication. The main task before the team of researchers from Russia and Italy was to find ways to accelerate the transfer of high-quality gluten-quality genetic systems to the genotype of genotypes adapted to the prairie regions of Russia and the creation of competitive commercial cultivars of spring durum wheat on the basis of this source material. As the basic genotypes, three lines of Bezenchuk selection were used, as donors of high quality gluten (index gluten - IG) of Kofa (Canada), Aureo, Achille (both Italy). In this publication the results of selection of new genotypes with high quality are shown on the basis of the genetic system of Kofa cultivar. Backcrossing was accompanied by selection in segregation generations using genomic selection technology. Plants containing allele variants from Kofa (QTL block on the 1A chromosome) were evaluated using 100 SSR (Single sequence Repeat) molecular markers covering all the chromosomes of genomes A and B to select the plants closest to the genetically Russian line used as the maternal form when crossing. The result of the work is the creation of new genotypes under the names Taganrog and Bourbon. These lines in the testing trial showed an IG of 85 units, which corresponds to the best Italian cultivars, which are especially appreciated in the production of pasta.