Gilberto Igrejas - Wheat Quality For Improving Processing And Human Health

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Wheat is one of the most consumed, produced and stored food crops worldwide. The paramount importance of wheat to human populations can be attributed to the remarkable work done by wheat breeders, who have improved wheat varieties keeping them in the spotlight of global agriculture. The recently completed annotation of the entire genome of bread wheat ended 13 years of collective effort to crack the wheat genetic code. The genome sequence can be used to study gene expression at any point in the life cycle of the plant, and to define which genes to target to improve yield and stress resistance. This massive advance not only allowed better understanding of relevant genes for agricultural applications but also for end-use quality traits.

During the last four years, wheat quality scientists from different countries have worked to develop the Expert Working Group (EWG) on Improving Wheat Quality for Processing and Health under the Wheat Initiative umbrella. This joint effort provides a framework to establish strategic research and organisation priorities for wheat improvement at the international level in both developed and developing countries. This EWG aims to maintain and improve wheat quality for processing and health under varying environmental conditions. The EWG has been focused on wheat quality in the broad sense, including seed proteins, carbohydrates, nutritional quality, grain processing and food safety. Bioactive compounds are also being considered, both those with negative effects, such as allergens and mycotoxins, that cause serious problems that need to be resolved, and those with positive effects, such as antioxidants or fibers, that can potentially be exploited. The EWG also works in the development of germplasm sets and other tools that can be deployed in wheat quality research.

The preparation of this book covering the whole range of grain quality topics is one of the important activities that the EWG is doing nowadays. The book should serve to identify possible gaps in important areas of wheat quality research and to position the EWG as an initial point of reference for the global wheat community regarding the different topics covered in depth here. Forty EWG members worked on 21 chapters of the book. This book adheres to the same policies that the EWG promotes such as using unified nomenclature to name the different alleles and providing correct information about materials (accession name, Germplasm Bank of origin, etc.) so other researchers know exactly what is being described and how to obtain the same materials or information.