Cereal grain fiber is an important health-promoting component in the human diet. One
option to improve dietary fiber content and composition in wheat is to introduce genes
from its wild relatives Aegilops biuncialis and Aegilops geniculata. This study showed
that the addition of chromosomes 2Ug, 4Ug, 5Ug, 7Ug, 2Mg, 5Mg and 7Mg of Ae. geniculata
and 3Ub, 2Mb, 3Mb and 7Mb of Ae. biuncialis into bread wheat increased the seed protein
content. Chromosomes 1Ug and 1Mg increased the proportion of polymeric glutenin proteins,
while the addition of chromosomes 1Ub and 6Ub led to its decrease. Both Aegilops species
had higher proportions of β-glucan compared to arabinoxylan than wheat lines, and
elevated β-glucan content was also observed in wheat chromosome addition lines 5U,
7U and 7M. The arabinoxylan content in wheat was increased by the addition of chromosomes
5Ug, 7Ug and 1Ub while water-soluble arabinoxylan was increased by the addition of
chromosomes 5U, 5M and 7M, and to a lesser extent by chromosomes 3, 4, 6Ug and 2Mb.
Chromosomes 5Ug and 7Mb also affected the structure of wheat arabinoxylan, as shown
by the pattern of oligosaccharides released by digestion with endoxylanase. These
results will help to map genomic regions responsible for edible fiber content in Aegilops
and will contribute to the efficient transfer of wild alleles in introgression breeding
programs to obtain wheat varieties with improved health benefits.