A Digital PCR Assay to Quantify the Percentages of Hulled vs. Hulless Wheat in Flours and Flour-Based Products
Caterina Morcia,
Raffaella Bergami,
Sonia Scaramagli,
Chiara Delogu,
Lorella Andreani,
Paola Carnevali,
Giorgio Tumino,
Roberta Ghizzoni,
Valeria Terzi
Affiliations
Caterina Morcia
Consiglio Per la Ricerca in Agricoltura e L’analisi Dell’economia Agraria-Centro di Ricerca Genomica e Bioinformatica (CREA-GB), Via San Protaso 302, 29017 Fiorenzuola d’Arda, PC, Italy
Raffaella Bergami
Coop Italia, Via del Lavoro, 6/8, I-40033 Casalecchio di Reno, BO, Italy
Sonia Scaramagli
Coop Italia, Via del Lavoro, 6/8, I-40033 Casalecchio di Reno, BO, Italy
Chiara Delogu
Consiglio Per la Ricerca in Agricoltura e L’analisi Dell’economia Agraria-Centro di Ricerca Difesa e Certificazione (CREA-DC), Via Emilia km 307, 26838 Tavazzano, LO, Italy
Lorella Andreani
Consiglio Per la Ricerca in Agricoltura e L’analisi Dell’economia Agraria-Centro di Ricerca Difesa e Certificazione (CREA-DC), Via Emilia km 307, 26838 Tavazzano, LO, Italy
Paola Carnevali
Barilla S.p.A., Via Mantova 166, I-43122 Parma, PR, Italy
Giorgio Tumino
Plant Breeding, Wageningen Plant Research, Wageningen University & Research, Droevendaalsesteeg 1, 6708 PB Wageningen, The Netherlands
Roberta Ghizzoni
Consiglio Per la Ricerca in Agricoltura e L’analisi Dell’economia Agraria-Centro di Ricerca Genomica e Bioinformatica (CREA-GB), Via San Protaso 302, 29017 Fiorenzuola d’Arda, PC, Italy
Valeria Terzi
Consiglio Per la Ricerca in Agricoltura e L’analisi Dell’economia Agraria-Centro di Ricerca Genomica e Bioinformatica (CREA-GB), Via San Protaso 302, 29017 Fiorenzuola d’Arda, PC, Italy
Several food products, made from hulled wheats, are now offered by the market, ranging from grains and pasta to flour and bakery products. The possibility of verifying the authenticity of wheat species used at any point in the production chain is relevant, in defense of both producers and consumers. A chip digital PCR assay has been developed to detect and quantify percentages of hulless (i.e., common and durum wheat) and hulled (i.e., einkorn, emmer and spelt) wheats in grains, flours and food products. The assay has been designed on a polymorphism in the miRNA172 target site of the AP2-5 transcription factor localized on chromosome 5A and involved in wheat spike morphogenesis and grain threshability. The assay has been evaluated even in a real-time PCR system to assess its applicability and to compare the analytical costs between dPCR and real-time PCR approaches.
