Epidemiological studies have demonstrated the critical role of staple food on human health. Arabinoxylans (AXs), ferulic acid and alkylrescinols are health-promoting components in wheat. This presentation will summarize our recent progress on development and utilization of health-promoting wheat varieties for improved human health in China, CIMMYT and Pakistan. (1) We have developed enhanced phenotyping methods for analyzing phenolic acids and alkylrescinols, and successfully adapted the CIMMYT method for assessing AXs.

These eco-friendly methods have significantly increased analytical throughput by 3-5 times while reducing costs by 50%. (2) Our evaluation of the health-promoting qualities of diverse wheat lines, including 324 Chinese wheat varieties, 200 Pakistan wheat varieties, and 267 lines from CIMMYT’s 53th IBWSN across multiple environments, has broadened our understanding of potential parental lines for enhancing health-promoting qualities. Notably, we found Taishan 1 and Shan 715 had higher AXs content than Yumai 34, the benchmark variety for AXs content reported previously. In spring wheat lines from China, a series of “Jinqiang” wheat lines, whose pedigree could be traced to “Wildcat” of Canada, demonstrated comparable AXs profile to Yumai 34.

In addition, we identified 16 lines from CIMMYT with high ferulic acid content and thousand kernel weight. (3) Through linkage mapping analysis of RIL population derived from Zhongmai 578/Jimai 22, we pinpointed 1 stable QTL of AXs, 3 stable QTL for ferulic acid and 4 stable QTL for alkylrescinols. KASP markers associated with these QTLs have been successfully developed and validated. The combined use of these markers in marker-assisted selection led to the development of CA17169 (now registered as Zhongmai 39), exhibiting improved health-promoting and bread-making qualities. Additionally, we developed variety-specific processing technique of Zhongmai 578, an elite variety with exceptional bread-making quality.

The pearled flour demonstrated 30% improvement in loaf volume compared to conventional whole meal flour, with maximized preservation of AXs, ferulic acid and alkylrescinols. Our study also found a significantly positive correlation between health-promoting quality of whole meal and refined flour, indicating that refined flour could also provide certain amount of ferulic acid and AXs.

Collectively, our findings highlight the importance of integrating knowledge from wheat genetics, food science, and human nutrition to enhance the intake of AXs and phenolics in wheat for improved human health. International collaboration on germplasm resources, phenotyping enhancements, and molecular marker development and application is crucial for advancing global nutrition and health security.