Breeding possibilities offered by induced mutations in durum wheat

A report on the use of mutations of agronomic value obtained in durum wheat in an accelerated crossing programme is given. The mutated characters used were isolated in cv. Cappelli and Russello, related respectively to a dominant short straw and a dominant earliness factor. Besides these two mutant lines, 4 other varieties were used, 80/57, Yuma, LD 357 and Kyperounda, representative of cultivated types of quite different origin. The program started in December 1965 and progressed till June 1970. During this time nine generations were grown, including two agronomic trials. Single crosses were also compared with incomplete backcrossing (3 backcrossing cycles), dominance of the factors utilized allowing backcrossing of every F1.