Biotechnology of Wheat Quality

Abstract

: Wheat gluten proteins are largely responsible for the visco-elastic properties that allow doughs to be processed into bread and various other food products including cakes, biscuits (cookies), pasta and noodles. Detailed biochemical and biophysical studies are revealing details of the molecular structures and interactions of the individual gluten proteins, and their roles in determining the functional properties of gluten. In particular, one group of gluten proteins, the high molecular weight (HMW) subunits of glutenin, have been studied in detail because of their role in determining the strength (elasticity) of doughs. The development of robust transformation systems for bread wheat is now allowing the role of the HMW subunits to be explored experimentally, by manipulating their amount and composition in transgenic plants. Such studies should lead to improvement of the processing properties of wheat for traditional end uses and the development of novel end uses in food processing or as raw material for other industries.

Zinc fertilization alters flour protein composition of winter wheat genotypes varying in gluten content

“…Not only flour protein content, but also the proportions of each protein type are closely related to flour quality (Deng et al 2006) and thus the end use. Based on the end use, there are various wheats: bread wheat (high protein concentration and strong gluten strength), noodle wheat (moderate protein contents and gluten strength) and biscuit wheat (low protein contents and wet gluten content) (Shewry et al 1997). It has been reported that N, S, Cu and Zn nutrition had impacts on flour protein components, especially glutenins (Zhao et al 1999, Peck et al 2008.…”

The Impacts of Various Ratios of Different Hydrocolloids and Surfactants on Quality Characteristics of Corn Starch Based Gluten-free Bread

“…Those are made of intermediate products originated from wheat and determine the quality of such products (Shewry et al 1997). Manufacturing other products, particularly bread making using some food additives as a substitute for gluten is considered among the matters that have been significantly emphasized by the food science and technology in recent years (Farrell and Kelly 2001;Turabi et al 2008;Sciarini et al 2010;Torbica et al 2010).…”

Prolamin proteins alteration in durum wheat by species of the genus Eurygaster and Aelia (Insecta, Hemiptera)

“…is one of the three most important crops in relation to cultivated area (approximately 215 million hectares) and total global production (approximately 600 million tonnes) (FAOSTAT, 2008). The unique properties of wheat flour and dough enable the production of a wide range of products such as various types of bread, pasta, cakes and biscuits (Shewry et al, 1997).…”

“…Wheat gluten consists of more than 50 protein components (Shewry et al, 1987) that have been traditionally classified into two groups, gliadins and glutenins (Wieser, 2007). Gliadins are soluble in aqueous alcohols (60-70% ethanol, 50% 1-propanol) and are present as monomeric proteins that lack inter-chain disulphide bonds, presenting instead intra-chain disulphide bonds (Shewry et al, 1997). Glutenins are insoluble in aqueous alcohols and consist of protein subunits present in polymers stabilised by inter-chain disulphide bonds.…”

“…A reduction of these bonds results in subunits which are soluble in alcohol/water mixtures. Rheological properties of dough depend on both protein fractions (Shewry et al, 1997).…”