Acrylamide forms from free asparagine and reducing sugars during cooking, with asparagine concentration being the key parameter determining the formation in foods produced from wheat flour. In this study free amino acid concentrations were measured in the grain of varieties Spark and Rialto and four doubled haploid lines from a Spark x Rialto mapping population. The parental and doubled haploid lines had differing levels of total free amino acids and free asparagine in the grain, with one line consistently being lower than either parent for both of these factors. Sulfur deprivation led to huge increases in the concentrations of free asparagine and glutamine, and canonical variate analysis showed clear separation of the grain samples as a result of treatment (environment, E) and genotype (G) and provided evidence of G x E interactions. Low grain sulfur and high free asparagine concentration were closely associated with increased risk of acrylamide formation. G, E, and G x E effects were also evident in grain from six varieties of wheat grown at field locations around the United Kingdom in 2006 and 2007. The data indicate that progress in reducing the risk of acrylamide formation in processed wheat products could be made immediately through the selection and cultivation of low grain asparagine varieties and that further genetically driven improvements should be achievable. However, genotypes that are selected should also be tested under a range of environmental conditions.

Current wheat yield and consumption is considered in the context of the historical development of wheat, from early domestication through to modern plant breeding, the Green Revolution and wheat’s place as one of the world’s most productive and important crops in the 21st Century. The need for further improvement in the yield potential of wheat in order to meet current and impending challenges is discussed, including rising consumption and the demand for grain for fuel as well as food. Research on the complex genetics underlying wheat yield is described, including the identification of quantitative trait loci and individual genes, and the prospects of biotechnology playing a role in wheat improvement in the future are discussed. The challenge of preparing wheat to meet the problems of drought, high temperature and increasing carbon dioxide concentration that are anticipated to come about as a result of climate change is also reviewed. Wheat yield must be increased while not compromising food safety, and the emerging problem of processing contaminants is reviewed, focussing in particular on acrylamide, a contaminant that forms from free asparagine and reducing sugars during high temperature cooking and processing. Wheat breeders are strongly encouraged to consider the contaminant issue when breeding for yield.

We review current knowledge of the most abundant sugars, sucrose, maltose, glucose and fructose, in the world's major crop plants. The sucroseaccumulating crops, sugar beet and sugar cane, are included, but the main focus of the review is potato and the major cereal crops. The production of sucrose in photosynthesis and the inter-relationships of sucrose, glucose, fructose and other metabolites in primary carbon metabolism are described, as well as the synthesis of starch, fructan and cell wall polysaccharides and the breakdown of starch to produce maltose. The importance of sugars as hormone-like signalling molecules is discussed, including the role of another sugar, trehalose, and the trehalose biosynthetic pathway. The Maillard reaction, which occurs between reducing sugars and amino acids during thermal processing, is described because of its importance for colour and flavour in cooked foods. This reaction also leads to the formation of potentially harmful compounds, such as acrylamide, and is attracting increasing attention as food producers and regulators seek to reduce the levels of acrylamide in cooked food. Genetic and environmental factors affecting sugar concentrations are described.

Acrylamide, a chemical that is probably carcinogenic in humans and has neurological and reproductive effects, forms from free asparagine and reducing sugars during high-temperature cooking and processing of common foods. Potato and cereal products are major contributors to dietary exposure to acrylamide and while the food industry reacted rapidly to the discovery of acrylamide in some of the most popular foods, the issue remains a difficult one for many sectors. Efforts to reduce acrylamide formation would be greatly facilitated by the development of crop varieties with lower concentrations of free asparagine and/or reducing sugars, and of best agronomic practice to ensure that concentrations are kept as low as possible. This review describes how acrylamide is formed, the factors affecting free asparagine and sugar concentrations in crop plants, and the sometimes complex relationship between precursor concentration and acrylamide-forming potential. It covers some of the strategies being used to reduce free asparagine and sugar concentrations through genetic modification and other genetic techniques, such as the identification of quantitative trait loci. The link between acrylamide formation, flavour, and colour is discussed, as well as the difficulty of balancing the unknown risk of exposure to acrylamide in the levels that are present in foods with the well-established health benefits of some of the foods concerned.

Asparagine is an important nitrogen storage and transport molecule, but its accumulation as a free amino acid in crops has implications for food safety because free asparagine is a precursor for acrylamide formation during cooking and processing. Asparagine synthesis occurs by the amidation of aspartate, catalysed by asparagine synthetase, and this study concerned the expression of asparagine synthetase (TaASN) genes in wheat. The expression of three genes, TaASN1-3, was studied in different tissues and in response to nitrogen and sulphur supply. The expression of TaASN2 in the embryo and endosperm during mid to late grain development was the highest of any of the genes in any tissue. Both TaASN1 and TaASN2 increased in expression through grain development, and in the grain of field-grown plants during mid-development in response to sulphur deprivation. However, only TaASN1 was affected by nitrogen or sulphur supply in pot-based experiments, showing complex tissue-specific and developmentally-changing responses. A putative N-motif or GCN4-like regulatory motif was found in the promoter of TaASN1 genes from several cereal species. As the study was completed, a fourth gene, TaASN4, was identified from recently available genome data. Phylogenetic analysis showed that other cereal species have similar asparagine synthetase gene families to wheat.