Emails: 320383@studenti.unimore.it, giovanni.laido@crea.gov.it, salvatore.esposito@crea.gov.it, vanessa.desimone@crea.gov.it, ivano.pecorella@crea.gov.it, fabio.fania@unifg.it, salvatore.colecchia@crea.gov.it, pasquale.devita@crea.gov.it, nicola.pecchioni@crea.gov.it

Yield stability poses a critical challenge in cultivating durum wheat, with significant implications for global food security and agricultural sustainability. Thus, understanding the genetic basis of yield stability in conditions of climate change is imperative for optimizing breeding programs and ensuring robust crop productivity.

Our research aims to dissect the genetic architecture underlying complex traits, such as grain yield and related traits, in durum wheat using a Nested Association Mapping (NAM) population, specifically by identifying genomic regions associated with spike and kernel traits. Here, we introduce a large durum wheat NAM population developed at Research Centre for Cereal and Industrial Crops (CREA-CI, Foggia, Italy) by crossing thirty-one (31) diverse donor parents to a recurrent parent "Cappelli," yielding 3,720 F6 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) with 120 lines per family.

Utilizing the inherent genetic diversity within this population, we conducted phenotypic evaluations for kernel and spike traits, including spike length (SL), spike weight (SW), spikelet number per spike (SNS), fertile spikelet number per spike (FSNS), kernel number per spike (KNS), kernel weight per spike (KWS), kernel per spikelet (KPS), and spikelet density (SD).

Analysis of variance for each measured trait showed considerable variation among all genotypes. In addition, the genotyping of the NAM population is currently underway, by a targeted genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS - wheat 5K SNP) approach, allowing for comprehensive analysis of genetic variations across the entire population.

The ongoing project will advance durum wheat breeding strategies, ultimately enhancing crop productivity and resilience in diverse agricultural systems. Acknowledgment: This research has been funded by AGRITECH PNRR, Spoke 1.