Our breeding program

The main emphasis of our durum breeding program is to improve quality traits and grain yield. Furthermore, we intensively try to improve winter hardiness and resistance against Fusarium. We have identified, that frost tolerance in durum is mainly influenced by a copy number variation at Fr-2 locus and established a good KASP marker which facilitates selection. In contrast, for Fusarium resistance, we confirmed that the genetic architecture of the trait is very complex and thus, the amelioration success via selection slow.

We perform each year about 100 crosses. In a classical pedigree scheme, we select in multiple years for improved traits and perform field testing across whole Europe under conventional farming. Only the best breeding lines will be offered to breeders, which put them into the market. Interested breeders should contact Dr. Longin. Our recent varieties are Winterstern, Wintergold, Duramant, Durasol, Durafee. We stick to classical breeding methods without GMO technology.