Uruguayan wheat proteins: their relationship with traditional parameters and how are they affected by genotype and environment

Abstract

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is important in Uruguay both as food as well as crop. To achieve an attractive product for consumers and profitable for farmers, grain components should be able to produce high-quality bread. The most used device to characterize bread quality in wheat and flour is the Alveograph. The key component is gluten, a complex mix of proteins. In order to understand the relationship between gluten component proteins and alveographic parameters, as well as how they are affected by genotype and environment, sixteen genotypes were grown in two locations with differential nitrogen management. Traditional parameters were determined: protein content and alveogram. Gluten components were studied through size exclusion hplc. Rheological parameters presented a clear relationship with the hplc ones. It was possible to verify that to reach good extensibility, high protein content was needed; to obtain a strong dough, it was necessary to have a large number of high molecular weight proteins, and to get good resistance to extension, the polymeric proteins should have high molecular weight. Among the studied genotypes and environments, the first ones had a higher contribution to variability in extensibility and strength, while the latter explained most of the variability in resistance to extension. An equilibrium between genotype and environment is needed to achieve a dough with balanced characteristics.

Keywords

• wheat
• gluten
• rheology
• genotype
• environment