Delivering high dietary fibre via improved wheat cultivars and products

This LINK proposal will remove the constraints to the development and utilisation of wheat with high arabinoxylan (AX) fibre in white flour. This will be achieved by: 1. Developing and validating markers for QTLs for high fibre in white flour identified on chromosome 1BL and 6BS in the cultivars Yumai 34 (Chinese) and Valoris (French), respectively. 2. Introgressing these QTLs into elite UK germplasm to develop pre-breeding lines suitable for incorporation into breeding programmes in the UK. 3. Fine mapping the 1BL QTL to develop improved markers and identify recombinants to facilitate further introgression. 4. Determining the effects of high AX in flour on the milling and breadmaking properties, using pre-breeding lines in elite UK cultivars. 5. Determining the effects of environment on the content of AX in flour of pre-breeding lines and the impact of this variation on processing properties. 6. Disseminating this information to breeders, farmers, grain processors and consumers.