Wheat grain hardness is controlled primarily by the two tightly linked genes puroindoline A (pinA) and puroindoline B (pinB).  PINA and PINB proteins bind to starch granules as friabilin and prevent the adhesion of the protein matrix during seed maturation.  Thus, seeds with wild-type PINA and PINB function are soft in grain texture while those with PIN mutations are hard in texture. Both pina and pinb are located on the D genome of hexaploid wheat (AABBDD), therefore durum wheats (AABB) are devoid of PIN and are typically harder in grain texture than hard hexaploid wheats that contain altered, or non-functional PIN. Transgenic overexpression of pina and pinb in soft wheats has demonstrated that both PINs influence grain softness. However, the function of PINB may have greater impact on grain softness compared to PINA. To test whether it is possible to decrease grain softness via incorporation of additional copies of pin or “improved” forms of pinb, we conducted the following experiments.  First, disomic substitution lines containing A-genome PIN genes from T. monococum and B-genome PIN genes from A. searsii were crossed to the soft wheat variety Vanna. Second, synthetic wheats, derived from T. turgidum x A. tauschii progeny, were also crossed to Vanna to incorporate novel D-genome PINS from A. tauschii.  PCR markers have been developed to follow the added/improved pins in the progeny lines.  The result of added/improved PIN function on grain softness levels is currently being investigated.