{"id":344942,"date":"2026-03-24T07:28:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T07:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/344942\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T07:28:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T07:28:07","slug":"researchers-develop-durum-wheat-that-combines-freezing-tolerance-with-high-pasta-quality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/344942\/","title":{"rendered":"Researchers Develop Durum Wheat That Combines Freezing Tolerance With High Pasta Quality"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tuesday, 24 March 2026, 7:29 pm
Press Release: Skoltech<\/a><\/p>\n

Researchers from Skoltech, the International Maize and
\nWheat Improvement Center in Mexico, the Research Centre for
\nCereal and Industrial Crops in Italy, and other
\ninternational organizations have developed new durum wheat
\nlines capable of surviving freezing temperatures while
\nmaintaining the grain quality required for premium pasta
\nproduction. The study, published
\nin the Frontiers in Plant Science journal, presents a new
\nbreeding framework that could help make durum wheat
\nproduction more resilient to climate
\nvariability.<\/p>\n

Durum wheat is the primary raw material
\nused to produce pasta worldwide, yet it remains highly
\nvulnerable to sudden freezing events. As climate variability
\nincreases, unpredictable cold spells pose a growing risk to
\nwheat production. At the same time, breeders must preserve
\nthe high gluten quality that gives pasta its characteristic
\ntexture and cooking properties.<\/p>\n

To address this
\nchallenge, the research team analyzed 250 durum wheat
\naccessions from across Europe, integrating genomic and
\nphenotypic data to identify key genetic regions controlling
\nfreezing tolerance and grain quality. The analysis revealed
\na clear genetic division between Southern European
\nvarieties, bred primarily for pasta quality, and Eastern
\nEuropean accessions, adapted to colder climates.<\/p>\n

Research
\nteam\u2019s fieldwork. Source: Yawar Habib, Skoltech \/
\nSupplied<\/p>\n

Advertisement – scroll to continue reading<\/p>\n

The researchers paid
\nparticular attention to a well-characterized genetic region
\non chromosome 5A, corresponding to the Fr-A2 locus, which
\nplays a major role in freezing tolerance and explained more
\nthan a quarter of the variation in cold survival between
\ndifferent wheat varieties. They also confirmed a genetic
\nmarker linked to gluten strength, a key trait for pasta
\nquality. Building on these findings, the researchers applied
\nmulti-trait genomic selection, using genome-wide marker
\ninformation to predict the performance of breeding lines,
\nand combined this with simulated crosses to identify optimal
\nparental combinations. This approach allowed them to select
\nthe best parental pairs before field evaluation,
\nsignificantly reducing the need for trial-and-error breeding
\nwhich costs huge money and time. Notably, this represents
\none of the first implementations of genomic selection
\nintegrated into a practical breeding pipeline for durum
\nwheat in Russia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe approach was validated in real
\nbreeding populations, where molecular markers from
\ngenome-wide association studies were used to identify
\nprogeny lines carrying favorable alleles for both freezing
\ntolerance and gluten strength. The results confirmed that
\nthe genomic breeding pipeline can successfully combine these
\ntraits, providing a scalable strategy for developing
\nclimate-resilient durum wheat,\u201d commented Junior Research
\nScientist Yawar Habib from the Skoltech
\nBiomed Technologies Center, the lead author of the paper,
\nwho came to study at Skoltech from India and graduated from
\nthe Agrobiotechnologies and Engineering PhD
\nprogram.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As a result of the study, approximately
\n60 new durum wheat lines were selected that combine cold
\ntolerance with superior gluten properties. This work
\nrepresents an important step toward developing varieties
\ncapable of ensuring stable production of high-quality pasta
\nin the face of increasing climate instability. The proposed
\nmethodology can also be applied to improve other complex
\ntraits in agricultural
\ncrops.<\/p>\n

\n\u00a9 Scoop Media<\/a>
\n
\n<\/p>\n

Using Scoop for work?<\/p>\n

Scoop is free for personal use, but you”ll need a licence for work use. This is part of our Ethical Paywall and how we fund Scoop. Join today with plans starting from less than $3 per week, plus gain access to exclusive Pro features.<\/p>\n

Join Pro Individual<\/a>
\nFind out more<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tuesday, 24 March 2026, 7:29 pmPress Release: Skoltech Researchers from Skoltech, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[6689,390,374,111,24636,139,69,39761,147,11112,28147,167496,183871],"class_list":["post-344942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-agriculture","tag-climate-change","tag-innovation","tag-new-zealand","tag-newsworthy","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sci-tech","tag-science","tag-scoop","tag-skoltech","tag-world-environment","tag-world-food-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}