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FAIR-CT95-1170
Improving the Quality of EU Wheats for Use in the Food Industry |
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Improving the Quality of EU Wheats for Use in the Food Industry |
SUMMARY
Area 3 of the FAIR programme is focused on developments in food technology. However, in some cases the aims and objectives of these food related projects are also of significance to non-food use of agricultural raw materials. This is the case for this project which aims to look at wheat grain proteins in detail. Although the objectives of the proposer relate to quality for food, with an emphasis on breadmaking, this will have relevance to the non-food industries. First, the results will be of relevance to wheat processors, producing vital gluten and wheat starch, as well as glucose syrups, polyols etc. Second, there is increasing interest in the use of gluten as a polymer for fabrication of disposable plastic objects, the advantage being that these would be biodegradable.
OBJECTIVE
Bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) is the major arable crop in the EU, with a high proportion of the harvest being used in the food industry, particularly for the production of bread and other baked goods. Despite intensive breeding over the last century and a considerable volume of research, limited knowledge of the molecular basis for the functional properties of wheat in food systems is available, in particular how they are affected by environmental factors and how they can be manipulated by targeted plant breeding or by optimisation of the processing conditions.
Consequently, the utilising industries still experience problems in evaluating and processing EU grown wheats and it is frequently necessary to supplement wheat of inferior quality with high grade wheats imported from outside the EU.
The objective of this project is to determine the molecular basis for the functional properties of wheat for breadmaking and other food uses, using a combination of biophysical, biochemical and molecular genetic approaches, including the production and analysis of transgenic wheat plants. The underpinning knowledge provided will facilitate the development of new types of wheat with optimised raw material quality using genetic engineering. Wheat flour consists of about 80 % starch and 10 % protein, with small amounts of other components such as lipids and pentosans.
Although all of these may contribute to the functional properties, the proteins appear to be particularly important in this respect. This is because proteins are the major components of gluten, which forms a network in dough and confers the crucial properties of viscosity (extensibility) and elasticity. A precise balance of these properties is required for different end uses, and this balance in turn depends on the precise composition and properties of the gluten proteins. Gluten consists of over 50 such proteins, which are classically divided into two groups which are present in approximately equal amounts.
The glutenins are polymeric and form a highly viscous and elastic network which is plasticised by the monomeric gliadins. Poor processing quality of EU wheats is often related to insufficient elasticity, and the glutenin fraction has therefore been studied in most detail. This has demonstrated the importance of one particular group of proteins, called the High Molecular Weight (HMW) subunits.
These proteins will therefore provide answers to three key questions:
The results of these studies will allow the amino acid sequences of the individual HMW subunits to be related to their functional properties, via an understanding of their structures and molecular interactions in gluten and doughs.
This will allow the use of transformation to improve the quality of wheat for breadmaking and for other food and non food uses.
Contacts
Coordinator
© Copyright 2006 Policy Statements
Updated
by CPL Press:
03/07/2007
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