ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Breeding
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1660594
This article is part of the Research TopicPrecision Trait Mapping and Molecular Breeding in High-Impact Crop PlantsView all 6 articles
Biofortification of Dietary Fibre: Exploring Enhanced β-Glucan and Arabinoxylan Content in a Panel of Triticum and Wild Relatives
Provisionally accepted
Prexha Kapoor1
Sourav Panigrahi1
Yogita Singh2
Sundip Kumar3
Krishna Pal Singh3,4
Farkhandah Jan5
Reyazul Rouf Mir5
Upendra Kumar4*- 1Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, India
- 2University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, United States
- 3Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar, India
- 4M. J. P. Rohilkhand University, Bareilly, India
- 5Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir, Srinagar, India
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Dietary fibres, especially non-starch polysaccharides including β-glucan and arabinoxylan from cereal grains, are vital for human health due to their role in lowering cholesterol, regulating glycemic index, and reducing the risk of chronic diseases like type II diabetes. A daily intake containing 2% or more β-glucan is often associated with health benefits. Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), , a staple crop and major source of dietary carbohydrates, contains limited variability for these fibre components compared to its wild relatives.. To explore genetic resources for fibre biofortification, we evaluated, a panel of 478 wheat genotypes including 37 wild relatives, 6 tetraploid and 435 hexaploid wheat accessions for β-glucan, arabinoxylan, alongside protein and starch content. The panel showed wide variation, with mean values of 0.93% for β-glucan, 5.77% for arabinoxylan, 13.37% for protein and 68.51% for starch. Among wild relatives, Aegilops peregrina and Aegilops kotschyi emerged as superior sources of high β-glucan and arabinoxylan, while modern cultivars generally exhibited lower values. Significant positive correlations were observed between β-glucan and protein, and negative associations with starch and thousand-grain weight, indicating potential trade-offs in grain composition. These findings highlight the untapped potential of wild genetic resources for enhancing the nutritional quality of wheat and provide promising candidates for pre-breeding and biofortification strategies aimed at improving dietary fibre in staple foods.
Keywords: wheat, β-Glucan, Arabinoxylan, protein, Starch, Dietary Fibre
Received: 10 Jul 2025; Accepted: 29 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Kapoor, Panigrahi, Singh, Kumar, Singh, Jan, Mir and Kumar. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Upendra Kumar, baliyan.upendra@gmail.com
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