The English version of the website dedicated to the Project “From Seed to Pasta” is now online

The English version of the website dedicated to the Project “From Seed to Pasta” is now online

The AGER Project “From Seed to Pasta – Multidisciplinary approaches for a more sustainable and high quality durum wheat production”, led by Società Produttori Sementi as project leader, is aimed at promoting the production of high quality durum wheat through the enhancement of pre-competitive conditions in different areas of the cereal sector, in favor of a raw material of high-quality, both from the technological and nutritional side.

Financed by the Foundation “AGER - Agroalimentare e Ricerca”, an association between grant-making foundations promoting scientific research in the agro-food sector, the project “From Seed to Pasta” (FSTP) is implemented by a broad and qualified partnership formed by nine leader Institutions aimed at implementing effective synergies between the different areas of expertise: genetics and genomics (UNIBO-DiSTA, IGA, PTP), breeding and sustainability (PSB, CIMMYT), food quality (UNITUS-DAFNE, CRA-QCE) and food safety (ISPA-CNR, UNIPR).

During the three year duration of the project, the following strategic objectives will be achieved:

1) to develop a high-throughput platform for SNP profiling in durum wheat useful to identify and map genes/QTLs as well as for selection purpose,

2) to map genes/QTLs that control important traits, such as resistance to pathogens, technological and milling quality and yield components, in order to find molecular markers suitable for marker assisted selection (MAS),

3) to produce reliable protocols for MAS of target genes/QTLs and for selection based on physiological traits in order to expedite the obtainment of breeding material with superior characteristics,

4) to develop mathematical models for crop agronomic management aimed at providing support for durum wheat cultivation and estimating the environmental impact of different cultivation techniques,

5) to characterize the quality of raw material in terms of gluten quality, starch composition, fiber and bioactive compounds content, in order to identify genotypes suitable for the production of innovative food with functional properties characterized by low immunogenic and allergenic impact,

6) to identify, along the production chain, technological innovations suitable for enhancing the nutritional value of the raw material and

7) to address the concern about safety of raw material and derived products, with particular care to the contamination by Fusarium toxins (DON, T-2, HT-2 and masked forms), by developing new rapid analytical methods to determine the presence and the accumulation of mycotoxins in the durum wheat chain.

Finally, the achievement of the objectives of the FSTP project is strongly linked to the rapid transfer of the results to the entire production chain. The transfer will be ensured through scientific and technical publications, dissemination of developed protocols and genetic material, and by implementing a demonstration platform to concretely assist farmers on the evaluation of genetic materials and cultivation techniques.