Major mineral elements characteristics analysis and comprehensive evaluation of wheat varieties（lines） bred in Yunnan

【Objective】A systematic analysis of the major mineral elements in wheat varieties（lines） bred in Yunnan was conducted to provide scientific basis for guiding the dietary nutritional intake of local residents and for breeding wheat varieties enriched with beneficial mineral elements. 【Method】The study utilized 63 wheat varieties（lines） bred in Yunnan as experimental materials to determine the content S of major mineral elements and heavy metals in their grains. Through correlation analysis, cluster analysis and principal component analysis（PCA）, the contents of major mineral elements and heavy metals in different wheat varieties（lines） were analyzed and comprehensively evaluated. 【Result】Among 63 wheat varieties（lines） bred in Yunnan, the coefficient of variation（CV） for 12 mineral elements and 3 heavy metals ranged from 18.69% to 117.53%. The mean contents of the 12 mineral elements, namely potassium（K）, phosphorus（P）, magnesium（Mg）, calcium（Ca）, iron（Fe）, zinc（Zn）, manganese（Mn）, sodium（Na）, copper（Cu）, molybdenum（Mo）, selenium（Se）, and cobalt（Co）, were 4181.94, 3138.09, 1104.32, 462.47, 49.57, 38.00, 20.96, 12.36, 5.82, 0.18, 0.02, and 0.02 mg/kg respectively. The mean contents of the 3 heavy metals, chromium（Cr）, arsenic（As） and cadmium（Cd）, were 0.12, 0.01 and 0.04 mg/kg respectively. The contents of Na, Ca, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, and Zn were extremely significantly positively correlated with each other（P＜0.01, the same below）. The contents of Cd and Na, Co and Cd, Co and Se, and Cd and As were extremely significantly negatively correlated, and the correlation coefficients were-0.57,-0.56,-0.56 and-0.50 respectively.The 63 wheat varie-ties（lines） bred in Yunnan could be classified into 4 major clusters. Specifically, Yunmai 119 formed a distinct cluster on its own, so did Yunmai 114. Varieties 2023Y4-69, 2023Y4-98, 2023Y4-134 and 2023Y4-145 were grouped into another cluster, while the remaining 57 varieties（lines） formed a cluster. The wheat varieties（lines） could be clustered into 3 major groups based on the element contents in their grains. Specifically, Se, Mo and Cd were clustered into a group. Mn, Cr, Co and As formed a group. Na, Ca,Cu, Fe, K, Mg, P and Zn formed a group. The results of the PCA indicated that the cumulative variance contribution rate of the 4 principal components（PC1 to PC4） reached 82.987%. For PC1, the element contents of Na, Ca, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, and Zn had great influence on the characteristic vectors. The comprehensive evaluation results showed that the top 10 wheat varieties（lines） from Yunnan were Yunmai 119, Yunmai 114, Yunmai 122, Yunmai 120, Yunmai 117, 2023Y4-139, Yunmai 123, 2023Y4-85, 2023Y4-77 and 2023Y4-96. 【Conclusion】The contents of major mineral elements in the 63 wheat varieties（lines） bred in Yunnan exhibit great variation. Varieties such as Yunmai 119, Yunmai 114, Yunmai 122, Yunmai 120 and Yunmai 117 are identified as potential parental resources for breeding wheat varieties with enriched mineral elements.