Yellow is the colour of sunshine, of FC Barcelona’s football jerseys and the Beatles’ famous submarine.
It’s also the preferred colour of durum for buyers around the world.
Now researchers at the University of Saskatchewan’s Crop Development Centre have taken a significant step toward making it easier to develop new yellow durum varieties.
They have identified two critical genes responsible for the bright yellow pigment of the endosperm.
Curtis Pozniak, a durum breeder at the CDC, said the colour of the endosperm determines the colour of the pasta produced from the durum.
Read Also
VIDEO: Green Lightning and Nytro Ag win sustainability innovation award
Nytro Ag Corp and Green Lightning recieved an innovation award at Ag in Motion 2025 for the Green Lightning Nitrogen Machine, which converts atmospheric nitrogen into a plant-usable form.
“There is an international demand for elevating the levels of yellow pigment in the endosperm.”
He said new varieties in development as a result of the research are showing yellow pigment levels higher than the current standards AC Navigator, registered in 2002, and Commander, registered in 2004.
Graham Worden, senior manager of technical services for the Canadian Wheat Board, said AC Navigator set the bar at an extremely high level.
“It has one of the best bright yellow pigment values of any durum variety around the world.”
However, he said Canada’s competitors have also improved the yellow pigment of their durum, which makes it important to keep moving forward with research to develop new and improved varieties.
The three-year research project was a collaborative effort between the CDC and Agriculture Canada’s durum breeding program at Swift Current, Sask. Some of the funding was from producers through the Western Grains Research Foundation.
Pozniak said the goals were to develop tools that Canadian breeders could use to select more efficiently for brighter yellow pigment types and to learn more about the genetics that determine pigment accumulation.
“Once you understand the genes involved, you can develop some appropriate selection strategies to elevate pigment and to identify breeding and germplasm lines that can be used in crossing,” he said.
Consultations with corn researchers provided clues as to what genes might be involved, which were then sequenced to determine genetic differences between high and low pigment lines.
Researchers were then able to develop and validate DNA-based markers for selection of elevated yellow pigment.
The markers, which were evaluated in a set of durum breeding lines, showed a correlation between the genes and pigment.
