Open AccessNovel sources of variation in grain Zinc (Zn) concentration in bread wheat germplasm derived from Watkins landraces
Author(s) -
Jaswant S. Khokhar,
Julie King,
Ian P. King,
Scott D. Young,
M. J. Foulkes,
Jayalath De Silva,
Minuka Weerasinghe,
AbdulWahab Mossa,
Simon Griffiths,
A. B. Riche,
Malcolm J. Hawkesford,
Peter R. Shewry,
Martin R. Broadley
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0229107
Subject(s) - germplasm , zinc , cultivar , grain yield , wheat flour , agronomy , chemistry , food science , biofortification , poaceae , biology , zoology , organic chemistry
A diverse panel of 245 wheat genotypes, derived from crosses between landraces from the Watkins collection representing global diversity in the early 20 th century and the modern wheat cultivar Paragon, was grown at two field sites in the UK in 2015–16 and the concentrations of zinc and iron determined in wholegrain using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Zinc concentrations in wholegrain varied from 24–49 mg kg -1 and were correlated with iron concentration (r = 0.64) and grain protein content (r = 0.14). However, the correlation with yield was low (r = -0.16) indicating little yield dilution. A sub-set of 24 wheat lines were selected from 245 wheat genotypes and characterised for Zn and Fe concentrations in wholegrain and white flour over two sites and years. White flours from 24 selected lines contained 8–15 mg kg -1 of zinc, which was positively correlated with the wholegrain Zn concentration (r = 0.79, averaged across sites and years). This demonstrates the potential to exploit the diversity in landraces to increase the concentration of Zn in wholegrain and flour of modern high yielding bread wheat cultivars.