Environment and Genotype Effects on the Content of Dietary Fiber and Its Components in Wheat in the HEALTHGRAIN Diversity Screen

Abstract

Within the HEALTHGRAIN diversity screen, the variability of the contents of dietary fiber (DF) and components thereof was studied in wheat. Furthermore, the contribution of genotype and environment to this variability was estimated. The levels of total DF (TDF), total nonstarch polysaccharide (TOTNSP), water-extractable nonstarch polysaccharide (WENSP), total arabinoxylan (TOTAX), lignin, and beta-glucan in whole meal, flour, and/or bran varied approximately 1.8-fold. The highest variability was observed for the water-extractable arabinoxylan (WEAX) level in flour and bran (approximately 3.7-fold). Genotype and environment contributed to a similar extent to the variability in TDF, TOTNSP, and TOTAX content in wheat. The observed relatively high impact of genotype-environment interaction suggests that the levels of these constituents are weak breeding parameters. The WENSP level is a more stable parameter as the effect of the interaction term was much less than the impact of genotype. For TOTAX and WEAX in flour, WEAX in bran, beta-glucan in whole meal, and extract viscosity, wheat genotype determined approximately 50% or higher of the variation observed, whereas the impact of the genotype-environment interaction was relatively low. These findings suggest that the health-related and technological functionality of wheat can be directed to a certain extent by selection of appropriate wheat varieties.

Nutritional Impacts of Different Whole Grain Milling Techniques: A Review of Milling Practices and Existing Data

“…(The somewhat lower degree of variability would be expected because the land and climatic conditions vary less in the smaller country, which has fairly homogeneous topography and weather.) Similar variations were observed within species across varieties and growing regions in an extensive study undertaken as part of the European HEALTHGRAIN Project (74,75).…”

Key issues and challenges in whole wheat flour milling and storage

“…Therefore, it may be worthwhile to select wheat genotypes for whole grain applications based on desirable nutritional properties such as phytochemical and dietary fiber content (Gebruers et al, 2010;Ward et al, 2008). This is already done for some other grains, such as oats, where millers often select particular varieties of grain with high b-glucan content to support health-claims for heart health and cholesterol reduction.…”

Satiating Effects of Rye Foods

“…The composition is similar to that of wheat (Gebruers et al, 2010) and barley (Andersson et al, 2008), whereas oats has higher lipid content and is lower in starch (Andersson et al, 2008). The dietary fibre content of rye is high, ranging between 18-22% ) of which about a third is extractable.…”