CNR ExploRA

Articolo in rivista, 2021, ENG, 10.3390/foods10092142

Drought and Heat Stress Impacts on Phenolic Acids Accumulation in Durum Wheat Cultivars

Barbara Laddomada 1,* , Antonio Blanco 2, Giovanni Mita 1 , Leone D'Amico 1, Ravi P. Singh 3, Karim Ammar 3, Jose Crossa 3 and Carlos Guzmán4,*

1 Institute of Sciences of Food Production (ISPA), National Research Council (CNR), Via Monteroni, 73100 Lecce, Italy; giovanni.mita@ispa.cnr.it (G.M.); leone.damico@ispa.cnr.it (L.D.) 2 Department of Soil, Plant and Food Sciences, University of Bari 'Aldo Moro', Via G. Amendola 165/A, 70126 Bari, Italy; antonio.blanco@uniba.it 3 International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Global Wheat Program, Apdo Postal 6-641, Ciudad de México 56237, Mexico; R.Singh@cgiar.org (R.P.S.); k.ammar@cgiar.org (K.A.); J.CROSSA@cgiar.org (J.C.) 4 Departamento de Genética, Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería Agronómica y de Montes, Edificio Gregor Mendel, Campus de Rabanales, Universidad de Córdoba, CeiA3, 14071 Córdoba, Spain

Droughts and high temperatures are the main abiotic constraints hampering durum wheat production. This study investigated the accumulation of phenolic acids (PAs) in the wholemeal flour of six durum wheat cultivars under drought and heat stress. Phenolic acids were extracted from wholemeals and analysed through HPLC-DAD analysis. Ferulic acid was the most represented PA, varying from 390.1 to 785.6 g/g dry matter across all cultivars and growth conditions, followed by sinapic acids, p-coumaric, vanillic, syringic, and p-hydroxybenzoic acids. Among the cultivars, Cirno had the highest PAs content, especially under severe drought conditions. Heat stress enhanced the accumulation of minor individual PAs, whereas severe drought increased ferulic acid and total PAs. Broad-sense heritability was low (0.23) for p-coumaric acid but >0.69 for all other components. Positive correlations occurred between PA content and grain morphology and between test weight and grain yield. Durum wheat genotypes with good yields and high accumulation of PAs across different growing conditions could be significant for durum wheat resilience and health-promoting value.

Foods 10 (2142), pp. 1–11