Lutein esterification increases carotenoid retention in durum wheat grain. A step further in breeding and improving the commercial and nutritional quality during grain storage

7 Páginas.-- 3 Figuras.-- 2 TablasCarotenoid esterification is a common mechanism for carotenoid sequestration, accumulation and storage in plants. Carotenoids are responsible for the bright yellow colour of pasta. Therefore, carotenoid retention during storage is of great importance in the durum wheat food chain. In this work, we investigated the role of carotenoid esterification on carotenoid retention in durum wheat using two consecutive storage experiments. Firstly, we compared two landraces and two durum wheat varieties as a preliminary work. We then compared individuals derived from the BGE047535×'Athoris' cross contrasting for esterification ability. Our results show that carotenoid esterification leads to a higher carotenoid retention during storage in durum wheat. Thus, the use of the carotenoid esterification would be useful as an extra strategy to ongoing efforts to improve carotenoid retention in the durum wheat food chain.This research was funded by project PID2021-122152NB-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/ and by ERDF “ERDF A way of making Europe”. M.D.R.-R. was supported by PRE2018-084037 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and ESF “ESF investing in your future.” D.H.-M. is member of the Spanish Carotenoid Network (CaRed), grant RED2022-134577-T. S.G.A. and C.R.-S. are members of the Spanish Research network in resilient quality cereals for Spanish food security (CeReS), grant RED2022-134922-T. Both CaRed and CeReS networks are funded by (MCIN/AEI/10.13039/50110001103). We thank Qualifica Project [QUAL21_023 IAS] funded by Junta de Andalucia for support of IAS-CSIC.Peer reviewe