Investigating environmental and geographical factors affecting iodine concentrations in Australian wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) grain

Iodine is an essential micronutrient for human nutrition, though it is found in relatively low concentrations in many important crop species. Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is a common staple crop worldwide, and as such could be an important source of dietary iodine due to its widespread consumption. However, little is known about iodine concentrations in wheat grain grown under rainfed field conditions, nor the impact of growing region or environment on these concentrations. Therefore, this paper had three objectives; (1) quantify the iodine concentration in a popular variety of wheat cultivated across the wheat belt of three Australian States (Western Australia, South Australia and Victoria) over two winter seasons (2) determine the influence of distance from the coast, rainfall, elevation, soil type and pH and grain yield on wheat grain iodine concentrations and (3) identify geographical areas where iodine concentrations of wheat grains are low enough that biofortification with iodine would be advantageous for human health outcomes. We sampled iodine concentrations of a single cv. Scepter at 125 sites from the winter season 2020 (65 sites) and 2021(60 sites), to investigate environmental and geographical effects on wheat grain iodine concentrations. Iodine concentrations were measured using triple quadrupole inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP MS/MS). We found that the elevation and the region (State) of growing sites were the most significant predictors of iodine concentration, along with the interaction between rainfall and topsoil texture. However, very low concentrations of iodine (5–24 μg/kg) were detected in all samples tested, indicating that even wheat grown under advantageous environmental and geographic conditions in southern Australia would be unlikely to represent an important source of dietary iodine. This emphasises the need to consider biofortification strategies to improve iodine concentrations in Australian grown wheat to improve the dietary uptake of this essential micronutrient by human consumers.