Insights into a century of breeding of durum wheat in Tunisia: The properties of flours and starches isolated from landraces, old and modern genotypes

The present work had a dual objective: to assess if the evolution of durum wheat from landraces to modern genotypes as function of breeding programs impacted proteins and starch fractions, as well as starch properties. Flours and starches isolated from Tunisian durum wheat landraces, old and modern lines were thoroughly characterized for their compositional, morphological, and gel properties. Statistical results showed significant (p ≤ 0.05) differences among the studied set. Protein and starch fractions assessment revealed that modern genotypes had the highest total starch and albumin contents, old genotypes had the highest amylose and glutenin contents, and landraces had the highest protein and gliadin contents. Starch properties screening allowed several findings: no significant (p > 0.05) differences were found among starch granules morphology, significant (p ≤ 0.05) differences were recorded in terms of technological properties, and old genotypes had the highest starch gel hardness. Overall, these results indicated that the influence of genotype on flour and starch properties was more relevant than breeding history.