Nowadays the interest of breeders, producers and consumers is going back to ancient wheat species, such as Triticum spelta, which are often considered as more valuable for healthy nutrition. In this light, we compared spelt cultivars and breeding lines with commercial common wheat cultivars by total lipid content, fatty acid levels and unsaturated/saturated ratio in grain. Lipids were extracted by Soxhlet procedure. Fatty acid composition was determined by gas chromatography. On average, the total lipid content was higher in the spelt cultivars than in the breeding spelt lines (3.04±0.24 % vs. 2.23±0.69 %, p < 0.05). There was a significant difference between the average content of total lipids in the spelt cultivars, but not the breeding spelt lines, and the common wheat cultivars (3.04±0.24 % vs. 2.44±0.57 %, p < 0.05). Six major fatty acids were found in hexaploid wheat species, with linoleic acid being the most abundant. They are ranked in order of decreasing levels as follows: linoleic > oleic >palmitic > linolenic > stearic > palmitoleic. We also detected trace amounts of 3 minor fatty acids: eicosanoic (arachidic), eicosenoic and behenic acids. Common wheat is not inferior to spelt in terms of unsaturated fatty acid levels, because the ratios of unsaturated acids to saturated ones in grain of T. spelta accessions were similar to those in commercial common wheat cultivars. The oleic acid content was higher in spelt accessions; though the linoleic acid content was higher in T. aestivum cultivars. Spring common wheat cultivar Heroinia had the most beneficial unsaturated/saturated ratio of 4.5. We detected no differences in unsaturated acid amounts between spring and winter hexaploid wheats. We observed no patterns in variability of fatty acid contents across the accessions under investigation, because the same accession can be characterized by a wide variability in one fatty acid and by a narrow range for another, and, at the same time, the same fatty acid can be very variable within one accession and little variable in another. There were no significant differences in the total lipid content and fatty acid levels between the study years for the same accession.

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Morphogenesis profiles in early generations of winter emmer Triticum dicoccum var. atratum (Host) Koern. / modern durum winter wheat varieties hybrids were established. High level and frequency of positive transgressions for the grain weight per spike (53.7% and 85.7%, respectively) and kernel number per spike (53.4% and 57.4%, respectively) in all three combinations were observed. Emmer plants with amber grain and high levels of positive transgressions for all performance traits and plant height of ≤ 80cm. (spike length, spikelet and kernel numbers per spike, grain weight per spike, and 1000-kernel weight) were selected in F2 hybrids between winter emmer / durum winter wheat. The inheritance coefficients varied, depending on the trait and cross combination.

Aim. To explore sources of high groats properties among the genetic diversity of emmer and related species. Methods. Biochemical: The protein content was determined by Kjeldahl digestion; the starch content – by infrared spectroscopy. Technological: the vitreousness was determined by cutting 100 caryopses and expressed as percent- ages. The hull content, expressed in percent, was estimated as the ratio of hulled caryopses to the total of fully threshed ones. The gluten content and quality were assessed by manual washing-out. The hardness was determined on a YPD-300 hardness tester (Ltpm China) as the force in newtons required for caryopsis destruction. Emmer groats were obtained on a laboratory peeler UShZ-1. The groats properties were evaluated according to the method described in a utility model patent No. 129205. Statistical: the significance of differences between accessions was assessed using the Mann-Whitney test for small samples with unknown distribution. Two-factor analysis of vari- ance considered 2 factors – genotype and year conditions. Pearson’s test was used in the correlation analysis. The variability of traits was assessed by the coefficient of variation (CV). Results. The yields of emmer and durum wheat accessions and varieties as well as lines derived from emmer-wheat hybrids were measured and analyzed in 2016–2019. The yields of most emmer accessions (except for T. timopheevii) were similar to that of the check em- mer variety Holikovska (286 ± 15 g/m2). The highest contents of protein and gluten were found in T. timopheevii (18.1 ± 0.4 % and 40.5 ± 1.8 %, respectively), Triticum durum Desf. var. falcatomelanopus Jakubz. & Filat. (17.5 ± ± 1.0 % and 40.4 ± 1.4 %), autochthonous variety Polba 3 (16.8 ± 0.1 % and 36.9 ± 1.1 %), and line 10–139 (14.8 ± 0.8 % and 29.0 ± 2.4 %). The gluten quality of most lines, derived from crossing spring emmer with durum wheat, corresponds to quality group I (good), and the gluten deformation index (GDI) is 50–75 units. T. timopheevii and T. durum var. falcatomelanopus were noticeable for vitreousness (99 ± 1 % and 75 ± 5 %, respec- tively). The grain hardness of the accessions under investigation varied from 151 ± 15 N in variety Romanivska to 286 ± ± 3 N in T. timopheevii. Lines 10–79 (255 ± 6 N), 10–65 (220 ± 10 N) and T. durum var. falcatomelanopus (268 ± 6 N) were characterized by high hardness, which exceeded that of durum wheat variety Spadshchyna (152 ± ± 13 N). High outputs of groats were intrinsic to line 10–139 (96.2 ± 0.8 %), line 10–79 (90.6 ± 0.8 %), T. timopheevii (92.0 ± 0.1 %), and durum wheat Spadshchyna (91.4 ± 0.5 %). All the studied accessions showed low variability (

Aim. To identify new sources of winter durum wheat by valuable economic traits, to determine relationships between pasta properties and to form a trait collection on this basis. Results and Discussion. Having comprehensively assessed valuable economic traits and pasta properties, we selected sources and reference accessions that significantly enriched the genetic diversity of the National Plant Gene Pool of Ukraine. They served as a basis for a trait collection by pasta properties. The trait collection of winter durum wheat by pasta properties (certificate No. 302 dated December 18, 2020) comprises 50 accessions from ten countries and reflects their diversity in terms of 20 traits and 73 levels of their expression, including flour and dry pasta color, weight increase, volume increase, cooking loss, the total pasta score, protein content in grain, vitreousness, as well as a number of valuable economic traits, in particular, disease resistance, performance, etc. Biologically, 48 accessions are cultivars and two are breeding lines. They represent one botanical species (T. durum Desf.) and four varieties (megalopolitanum, hordeiforme, leucurum, niloticum). Conclusions. New comprehensively valuable sources with high resistance to biotic factors and high yields (127-164% related to the check cultivar) have been identified: Koral Odeskyi, Pributkova, Passat (UKR); Amazon, Teya, Odari (RUS); and XE 9710 (FRA). Lainer (UKR); Zolotko, Yakhont (RUS); Sani Bugda (AZE); Saturn 1 (BGR); XE 9710 (FRA), and others were noticeable for high values of the total pasta score. High vitreousness was recorded for Zolotko and Kurant (RUS). High protein content in grain was intrinsic to Zolote Runo (UKR), Kondurum (ROU) and others. The above-listed accessions are valuable starting material for creating new promising cultivars. It was found that there were significant correlations (P<0.01) between the total pasta score and dry pasta color (r = 0.66), between the total pasta score and cooked pasta volume (r = −0.53) and between the total pasta score and cooked pasta weight (r = −0.52).