Durum wheat can expand in areas where its yield is competitive with that of bread wheat. This may be hampered by its more limited industrial end-uses. While processing durum grain into pasta, cous-cous or bulgur is globally industrialized, the production of bread is not. This is primarily due to the lack of extensibility of its dough, even when gluten strength is adequate. The hard texture of the durum grain limits its use in countries were semolina mills are not widely established. Genetic solutions to both of these limitations were considered in two independent research efforts. Gluten extensibility was addressed through the introgression of High Molecular Weight Glutenin Subunits (HMWGS) associated with gluten extensibility and good bread-making quality in bread wheat but not commonly present in durum wheat elite material. The introgression of HMWGS 1 or 2* at Glu-A1 or HMWGS 2+12 from Glu-D1 translocated to Chr. 1A could increase dough extensibility and improve baking performance, in some cases making it equal to that of bread wheat. HMWGS 5+10 from Glu-D1 translocated to Chr. 1A increased gluten strength but decreased extensibility and worsened baking performance. Finally, it was demonstrated that HMWGS 6+8 tended to be associated with lower baking performance, with all other

Glu-B1-encoded subunits present being equivalent in terms of their effect on extensibility and baking performance. Avoiding milling durum into semolina was explored through the introgression of the Pin-D1 locus carrying the “softness” allele for from bread wheat, making the durum grain produce fine flours as opposed to coarse semolina. Doughs from soft durums had a faster extrusion rate and the resulting pasta had higher cooking time, less cooking loss, and in general, a greater firmness indicating that the modification of the grain texture should not negatively affect the pasta-making quality. While the extensibility of soft durums was significantly increased, the effect on baking properties appeared to be neutral. Also, the high cookie diameters produced by the soft durum genotypes suggests that flour from these could be a good source for end-use food products normally obtained from soft white wheat. Taken together, the results indicate that genetic variability and breeding tools/approaches are now available to modify the characteristics of the durum grain in a way that it can be processed industrially into non-traditional end-products, such as leavened bread or cookies, including in areas were durum is not traditionally grown and where semolina milling infrastructure is not available.