Genetic Variability of Carotenoid Concentration and Degree of Esterification among Tritordeum (×TritordeumAscherson et Graebner) and Durum Wheat Accessions

Abstract

The higher carotenoid content (commonly referred as "yellow pigment content") of tritordeum seeds as compared to wheat and the potential of this species as a donor of useful traits to wheat led us to investigate the detailed carotenoid composition of 53 accessions of hexaploid tritordeums originating from different stages of the tritordeum breeding program developed at IAS-CSIC. In addition, seven durum wheat accessions were also studied for comparison. Lutein was the unique carotenoid detected, either free or esterified with fatty acids. On average, tritordeum had 5.2 times more carotenoids than durum wheat, which suggests a high potential of this species to become a functional food. In addition, the most outstanding result of this work is the high esterification degree of lutein found in tritordeums as compared to durum wheat. This difference may indicate the differential esterification ability between tritordeum and durum wheat species. The implications of this high level of lutein esterification on both carotenoid accumulation and stability are discussed.

Carotenoid evolution during short-storage period of durum wheat (Triticum turgidum conv. durum) and tritordeum (×Tritordeum Ascherson et Graebner) whole-grain flours

“…Tritordeum is an excellent example of the efforts made for selecting new cereal varieties with higher carotenoid contents, since its pigment content is 5-8 times higher than durum wheat (Atienza, Ballesteros, Martín, & Hornero-Méndez, 2007). Tritordeum (ÂTritordeum Ascherson et Graebner) is a novel cereal obtained as an amphiploid (2n = 6x = 42, AABBH ch H ch ) resulting from the cross between a wild barley (Hordeum chilense Roem.…”

“…& Schult) and durum wheat. In previous works, we have completely characterized the carotenoid composition of tritordeum (Atienza et al, 2007;Mellado-Ortega & Hornero-Méndez, 2012). It is mainly composed of lutein (3R,3 0 R,6 0 R-b,e-carotene-3,3 0 -diol) and its esters ( ).…”

Cytological and molecular characterization of wheat-Hordeum chilense chromosome 7Hch introgression lines

“…The yellow pigment content (YPC) is caused by carotenoids, mainly lutein (Atienza et al 2007b;Mellado-Ortega and Hornero-Mendez 2012). The chromosome 7H ch has a potential for improving the seed carotenoid content in wheat since it carries the Phytoene synthase 1 (Psy1) which plays a major role in this trait (Ficco et al 2014;.…”

The nuclear–cytoplasmic interaction controls carotenoid content in wheat

“…Hordeum chilense is characterized by a high-carotenoid content (Atienza et al 2004), with the main genes for carotenoid accumulation located on chromosome 7H ch (Alvarez et al 1998). Previous studies on carotenoid content in tritordeum did not detect any relation between the cytoplasm donor accession and carotenoid content in large sets of tritordeum accessions (Alvarez et al 1999;Atienza et al 2005Atienza et al , 2007b. Therefore the contrasting eVects registered here when alloplasmic lines carrying H. chilense cytoplasm were studied are likely to be the result of the nucleus £ cytoplasm interaction.…”

“…Lutein is the main carotenoid found in the seeds of einkorn (Abdel-Aal et al 2002;Hidalgo et al 2006;Leenhardt et al 2006); durum wheat (Adom et al 2003;Hentschel et al 2002;Leenhardt et al 2006), common wheat (Adom et al 2003;Leenhardt et al 2006;Moore et al 2005) and tritordeum (Atienza et al 2007b). Since carotenoids are synthesized within the plastids (Hirschberg 2001) and they accumulate in specialized lipoprotein-sequestering structures within the chromoplasts (Vishnevetsky et al 1999a, b), plastids and cytoplasm genome could play an important role in carotenoid content.…”