Utilization of Mixolab for assessment of durum wheat quality dependent on climatic factors

• Mixolab can successfully be used for durum wheat genotypes characterization.
• Regarding the protein quality, Mixolab indicates the differences between genotypes.
• Regarding the starch quality, Mixolab indicates dominant production year influence.
• Mixolab provides more complete information on semolina quality than standard methods.

For durum wheat quality assessment the commonly used parameters are protein content, yellow pigment content, hectoliter mass, grain vitreousness, 1000-grain weight and sodium dodecyl sulphate sedimentation. For wheat processing quality, in this study the Mixolab, instrument of a newer generation was used. Mixolab has been largely used for a rapid assessment of the Triticum aestivum quality but there is no a lot of data about durum wheat quality assesment. Therefore, the aim of this work was to test its potential in the quality characterization of fourteen durum wheat breeding lines grown during two production years with different climate conditions. The obtained results showed significant differences in starch-amylase complex part of Mixolab curve between two studied years. Mixolab parameters C3, C4 and C5 were in line with Falling Number values and amylolytic activity of samples. Samples from 2013 production year with higher precipitation sum had lower values of C3, C4 and C5 parameters as well as Falling Number values and higher amylolytic activity. On contrary, protein part of Mixolab curves expressed differences in dependence of genotype. In comparison to the standard parameters of protein and starch quality of durum wheat, Mixolab provides more complete information in a shorter time frame.