To identify constituents of grain dust responsible for grain handlers' respiratory symptoms, 11 volunteer grain elevator workers underwent inhalation provocation tests with extracts of durum wheat, durum wheat airborne dust, and grain insects and mites. Factors that might influence the host response to the challenge were assessed. Five of the 11 subjects showed a greater than 20 percent decreme...

Durum wheat (Triticum turgidum subsp. durum) is a key crop worldwide, and yet, its improvement and adaptation to emerging environmental threats is made difficult by the limited amount of allelic variation included in its elite pool. New allelic diversity may provide novel loci to international crop breeding through quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping in unexplored material. Here, we report th...

Starch is the largest component of the wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) grain and consists of approximately 70-80% amylopectin and 20-30% amylose. Amylopectin is a highly-branched, readily digested polysaccharide, whereas amylose has few branches and forms complexes that resist digestion and mimic dietary fiber (resistant starch). Down-regulation of the starch branching enzyme II (SBEII) gene by RN...

A novel gene sequence, with two exons and one intron, encoding a metallothionein (MT) has been identified in durum wheat Triticum durum cv. Balcali85 genomic DNA. Multiple alignment analyses on the cDNA and the translated protein sequences showed that T. durum MT (dMT) can be classified as a type 1 MT. dMT has three Cys-X-Cys motifs in each of the N- and C-terminal domains and a 42-residue-long...

In the present paper, the controversial hypothesis suggesting ancient grains might show lower immunogenic properties and therefore the possibility to introduce them in the diet of wheat-sensitive people, including celiac patients, was investigated. The immunogenic potential of the ancient durum wheats Graziella Ra and Kamut was studied by comparison to the durum accessions Cappelli, Flaminio, G...

Radiation hybrid (RH) mapping is based on radiation-induced chromosome breakage and analysis of chromosome segment retention or loss using molecular markers. In durum wheat (Triticum turgidum L., AABB), an alloplasmic durum line [(lo) durum] has been identified with chromosome 1D of T. aestivum L. (AABBDD) carrying the species cytoplasm-specific (scsae) gene. The chromosome 1D of this line segr...

The antioxidative activities of durum wheat flour and its components on linoleic acid were examined at 50 degrees C and 12% relative humidity. The progress of the oxidation was monitored by the pressure change due to the oxygen consumption during the oxidation. The antioxidative capacities were assessed by the length of the induction period for the oxidation. Durum wheat flour and its methanol ...

Homoeologous metaphase I (MI) associations in hybrids between durum wheat and its wild allotetraploid relatives Aegilops neglecta, Ae. triuncialis and Ae. ventricosa have been characterized by a genomic in situ hybridization procedure that allows simultaneous discrimination of A, B and wild species genomes. Earlier results in equivalent hybrids with the wild species Ae. cylindrica and Ae. genic...

Wheat of both the tetraploid (Triticum durum Desf.) and hexaploid (Triticum aestivum L.), is the most important cereal crop in Ethiopia, ranking third in total production (17%) next to maize (Zea mays L.) and tef (CSA, 2002). Wheat covers a total arable land of 110,434 ha with average productivity of about 8.4 qt ha-1, which is below the national average (14.4 qt ha-1). A field experiment was c...