"Growing hulled wheats and old bread wheat genotypes in non-marginal environments: agronomic, qualitative and safety insights"

Claudia Sardella¹Francesca Vanara¹Mattia Scapino¹Valentina Scarpino¹Clara Pedrazzani²Chiara Dall'Asta²Massimo Blandino^1*

• ¹University of Turin, Turin, Italy
• ²Universita degli Studi di Parma, Parma, Italy

Hulled wheats (einkorn, emmer, spelt wheats) and old genotypes of bread wheat (T. aestivum L. ssp. aestivum) have been attracting attention in plant breeding and in the food industry for food diversification and value addition purposes. This study investigated the agronomic behavior, the grain quality, the contaminants, the bioactive compounds (alkylresorcinols, phenolic acids), and the antioxidant capacity (FRAP and DPPH) of modern genotypes of hulled wheats (einkorn, emmer, and spelt), as well as old Italian bread wheat genotypes, under standard cropping conditions. These genotypes were compared with modern bread wheat genotypes used as commercial references in four location-by-year experiments in north-west Italy. The treatments were assigned to experimental units using a completely randomized block design and three replications. The modern bread wheats displayed better agronomic performances, while the old bread wheat genotypes had higher protein contents but were characterized by higher dough weakening, even with increasing levels of nitrogen fertilization. The old genotypes did not offer advantages concerning toxic celiac disease epitopes but exhibited an overall reduced susceptibility to mycotoxin accumulation, although a large variability was observed within the modern hulled and bread wheat genotypes. The bioactive compound content and the antioxidant capacity was closely related to the growing conditions. Most of the differences among the genotypes emerged from the soluble fraction of phenolic acids, with slightly higher content in the old bread wheat genotypes than in the modern ones, and a different profile for the hulled wheats. On the other hand, the alkylresorcinol content was higher in the modern genotypes than in the old ones and was closely related to kernel size. Overall, the results highlighted considerable differences among genotypes and a broader variability in the modern genotypes than the old ones for many of the studied traits. Substantial agronomic and qualitative differences were observed within the hulled wheats, thus suggesting opportunities for genetic selection and development of improved hulled or bread wheat genotypes.