Minor Cereals and New Crops: Tritordeum

Tritordeum is an amphiploid that originates from the backcrossing of a wild barley, Hordeum chilense, with durum wheat. Tritordeum thus represents a “bridge” between the desirable genetic traits of its parent lines, but its end-use is comparable with that of bread wheat. Commercial tritordeum cultivars are now available and have begun to be cultivated in different growing areas. This crop could easily be inserted into cereal cropping system, since it has a similar crop cycle and agronomic management to wheat. Tritordeum has a lower grain yield but higher protein content than wheat; it has inherited a good tolerance to abiotic stress and diseases from H. chilense, but it has a high susceptibility to Fusarium head blight and mycotoxin accumulation. Scientific works have so far mainly focused on the bioactive compound content: tritordeum in fact has higher levels of carotenoids and arabinoxylans than wheat, and these result in a greater total antioxidant activity. Moreover, a lower presence of immunotoxic peptides has been observed in tritordeum than in wheat, although the benefits for whose people who suffer from non-celiac gluten sensitivity still need to be studied in depth. If breeders can provide tritordeum cultivars with a lower yield gap and a better end-use value, it could represent an interesting alternative to wheat for the baked goods supply chain.