A breeding program was carried out jointly by CIMMYT (Mexico) and CRA-ACM (Italy) in order to improve the bread-making quality of durum wheat (Triticum turgidum subsp. durum). The research, objective of the research was to expand the genetic diversity for glutenin subunits in durum wheat, and resulted in the development of breeding stocks with new HMW-GS subunits. Ninety-six breeding lines were tested at Sonora (Mexico) in irrigated experimental trials during the 2009-10 cropping season. The same genotypes were grown in Sicily (Italy) in the 2011-12 season under rainfed conditions. Most of the lines showed HMW-GS combinations that included subunits typically found in bread wheat (1 or 2*; 7+17 or 17+18, 5+10 at the Glu-A1, Glu-B1 and Glu-D1 loci, respectively). Main bio-agronomic parameters were evaluated and genotype adaptability in different environments was studied. Gluten quality-related analysis and experimental bread-making test were carried out in order to study the aptitude of semolina with different HMW-GS combinations to bread-making quality. Results showed that the highest bread volumes were obtained from genotypes characterized by the glutenin combination 7+8/5+10 and 7+17/5+10.