Durum wheat (Triticum turgidum L. var. durum) is used predominantly for pasta products, but there is
increasing interest in using durum for bread-making. The goal of this study was to assess the bread-making
potential of 97Emmer19, an Emmer wheat (Triticum turgidumL. var. dicoccum) and in breeding lines derived
from crosses of 97Emmer19 with adapted durum wheat cultivars. 97Emmer19 and its progeny were evaluated
in 2005 and 2006 along with five durum wheat cultivars. Three bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)
cultivars were included as checks to provide a baseline of bread making quality observed in high quality
bread wheat cultivars. 97Emmer19 exhibited higher LV than all the durumwheat checks and approached the
LV achieved with the bread wheat cultivar ‘AC Superb’. Breeding lines derived from 97Emmer19 had higher
LV than those of the durumwheat checks, confirming that this trait was heritable. In general, durumwheat
cultivars with elevated gluten strength and/or increased dough extensibility were noted to have higher LV.
Dough extensibility appeared to be a more critical factor as gluten strength increased. These results indicate
that there is potential to select for genotypes with improved baking quality in durum breeding programs