Identification of high beta-glucan oat lines and localization and chemical characterization of their seed kernel beta-glucans
Oat, (Avena sativa) is an excellent source of mixed linkage beta-glucans ((1 -> 3)(1 -> 4)-beta-D-glucan), a dietary fibre with cholesterol lowering properties. Using a mutagenized oat-population we screened 1700 different lines and identified ten lines that displayed beta-glucan levels above 6.7% and 10 below 3.6%. The extreme values were 1.8% and 7.5%. We chose six lines with an increased- and f