Exploiting variation in wheat land races to optimise dietary fibre content and viscosity in commercial wheats

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Dietary fibre (DF) is an essential component of the diet with established health benefits. Soluble DF may also have unique benefits associated with its high viscosity. However, the daily intake in UK adults is substantially below recommended guidelines. Wheat is the most important source of DF in the UK, with bread providing 20% of the daily intake. Improving wheat DF is therefore an important target. By contrast, high fibre and high viscosity are detrimental when wheat is used as feed for poultry and as raw material for alcohol production in distilling and biofuel plants. We have identified wide variation in the amounts of total and soluble fibre in the Watkins collection of wheats which were collected across the world in the 1930s. This variation will be studied in more detail and tools developed to facilitate its exploitation to produce new wheat cultivars with improved end use properties, in collaboration with a major wheat breeder and with the Scotch Whisky Research Institute