Wheat breeding nowadays must address producers and consumers' desire. According to the last FAO report, a dramatic decrease in wheat production is expected in the next decades mainly due to the upcoming climate change. The identification of the processes which are triggered by heat stress and how thermotolerance develops in wheat is an active research topic. Genomic approach may help wheat breeding since it allows direct study on the genotype and relationship with the phenotype. Here the isolation and characterization of four members of the chloroplast-localized small heat shock proteins (sHSP) encoded by the Hsp26 gene family is reported. Furthermore, two high throughput TILLING (Targeting Induced Local Lesions In Genomes) approaches in vivo and in silico were used for the identification of new alleles within this family. Small heat shock proteins are known to prevent the irreversible aggregation of misfolded proteins and contribute to the acquisition of thermotolerance. Chloroplast-localized sHSPs protect the photosynthetic machinery during episodes of high temperature stress. The modulation of the newly discovered genes within the sHsp26 family has been analyzed in vivo and by the ExpVIP platform widening the abiotic stress analysis; and their involvement in the heat stress response has been demonstrated. In addition, in this study a total of 50 TILLING mutant lines have been identified. A set of KASP (Kompetitive Allele Specific PCR) markers was also developed to follow the specific mutations in the ongoing backcrosses, applicable to high throughput genotyping approaches and usable in marker assisted selection breeding programs.

Durum wheat (Triticum turgidum L.) flour is instrumental for the production of pasta worldwide. The quality of this food rests on flour processing and on its protein content and composition. Gluten proteins as high and low-molecular weight glutenins (GS) are important to predict the flour technological property in pasta making. Different methods were compared to separate, identify and quantify GS in flours from two wheat cultivars. Sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrilamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) gave in a fast way information about the GS assets. Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2D-GE) allowed for the highest resolution in detecting and quantifying single GS, subsequently identified by liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS/MS). Reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) is a non-gel alternative system for separation and quantification of single GS that when combined with matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-offlight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF/MS) gave information about their exact masses. This method gives also quantitative indications of each individual GS. Different GS patterns and contents were detected in the flour of the two cultivars, underlining the importance of these analytical methods before determining the best flour processing procedure in pasta making. The different methods were evaluated with a modular approach consisting of a grid of different parameters and a non-linear score within each module.