Wheat gluten protein and its impacts on wheat processing quality

Before the advent of the wheat genomic era, a wide range of studies were conducted to understand the chemistry and functions of the wheat storage proteins, which are the major determinants of wheat flour the suitability of wheat flour for various end products, such as bread, noodles and cakes. Wheat grain protein is divided into gluten and non-gluten fractions and the wheat processing quality mainly depends on the gluten fractions. Gluten provides the unique extensibility and elasticity of dough that are essential for various wheat end products. Disulfide bonds are formed between cysteine residues, which is the chemical bases for the physical properties of dough. Based on the SDS-extractability, grain protein is divided into SDS-unextractable polymeric protein (UPP) and SDS-extractable polymeric protein. The percentage of UPP is positively related to the formation of disulfide bonds in the dough matrix. In the wheat genomic era, new glutenins with long repetitive central domains that contain a high number of consensus hexapeptide and nonapeptide motifs as well as high content of cysteine and glutamine residues should be targeted.