Bread Wheat Biofortification for Grain Carotenoid Content by Inter-Specific Breeding

• Published in: Foods Vol. 12; no. 7; p. 1365
• Main Authors: Requena-Ramírez, María Dolores, Rodríguez-Suárez, Cristina, Ávila, Carmen M, Palomino, Carmen, Hornero-Méndez, Dámaso, Atienza, Sergio G
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 23-03-2023; MDPI
• Subjects: Alleles; biofortification; Biosynthesis; Bread; bread wheat; Carotenoids; Chromatography; Consumers; durum wheat; Food science; Genes; Genomes; Grain; Hybridization; marker-assisted selection; New varieties; Nutritional aspects; Phytoene synthase; Pigments; Plant breeding; Production processes; Wheat; Spain; United Kingdom > UK; durum wheat; marker-assisted selection; carotenoids; biofortification; bread wheat; Phytoene synthase
• ISSN: 2304-8158; 2304-8158
• DOI: 10.3390/foods12071365

Bread wheat has traditionally been selected for whitish derived flours. As a consequence, the current varieties carry carotenogenic alleles associated with low grain carotenoid. In contrast, high grain yellow pigment content (YPC) has been a major target in durum wheat programs since yellow colour is an important aesthetic factor for pasta production. Phytoene synthase 1 (
) genes have an important role in the determination of the carotenoid content in wheat. In this work, we have transferred the genes
and
from durum to bread wheat by inter-specific hybridization in order to evaluate the combined effect of these genes for the improvement of grain carotenoid content, as well as the development of carotenoid-enriched bread wheat lines. Inter-specific breeding coupled with a MAS approach based on
and
alleles has allowed the development of bread wheat pre-breeding lines with enhanced grain carotenoid content (16-23% mean). These biofortified lines have the potential to become new varieties or to be used as recurrent parents in bread wheat breeding programs.