Pre-harvest sprouting resistance of soft winter wheat varieties and associated grain characteristics

Breadmaking Quality Parameters of Different Varieties of Triticale Cultivars

The aim of this research is to investigate the quality of different triticale cultivars (Ingen 35, Ingen 33, Ingen 93, Ingen 54, Ingen 40, Fanica and Costel) cultivated in the Republic of Moldova from the point of view of the flour, dough, and bread quality characteristics. This research may be of great importance for producers and consumers due to the high production capacity, wide adaptability, economic significance in human foods and nutritional value of triticale cultivars. The triticale flours were analyzed for moisture, ash, protein, wet gluten, fat, carbohydrates, acidity and color parameters (L*, a* and b* values). According to the chemical values, the triticale flours were suitable for breadmaking. The moisture content was less than 14% for all triticale varieties, indicating a long shelf life during its storage and the lowest protein content of 13.1%. The mixing, pasting and fermentation characteristics of triticale dough were analyzed using Mixolab, falling number, dynamic rheometer, alveograph and rheofermentometer devices. All triticale flours presented high levels of α-amylase, with falling number values being less than 70 s. The bread quality characteristics analyzed were the loaf volume, porosity, acidity, and sensory characteristics, and the textural parameters examined were the hardness, gumminess, chewiness, cohesiveness, and resilience. Our data showed large differences in breadmaking quality parameters. However, according to the sensory data, all the bread samples except those obtained from the Costel variety were of a very good quality, being within a total sensory range of 25.26-29.85 points. According to the relationships between flour, dough and bread characteristics obtained through principal component analysis, it may be concluded that the triticale varieties Costel, Ingen 33, Ingen 93 and Fanica, and Ingen 35 were more closely associated with each other. Significant differences were found between the triticale variety samples Ingen 40, Fanica, and Ingen 35 and between Ingen 54, Ingen 33, Costel, and Ingen 93.

Functional analysis of a wheat class III peroxidase gene, TaPer12-3A, in seed dormancy and germination

BACKGROUND

Class III peroxidases (PODs) perform crucial functions in various developmental processes and responses to biotic and abiotic stresses. However, their roles in wheat seed dormancy (SD) and germination remain elusive.

RESULTS

Here, we identified a wheat class III POD gene, named TaPer12-3A, based on transcriptome data and expression analysis. TaPer12-3A showed decreasing and increasing expression trends with SD acquisition and release, respectively. It was highly expressed in wheat seeds and localized in the endoplasmic reticulum and cytoplasm. Germination tests were performed using the transgenic Arabidopsis and rice lines as well as wheat mutant mutagenized with ethyl methane sulfonate (EMS) in Jing 411 (J411) background. These results indicated that TaPer12-3A negatively regulated SD and positively mediated germination. Further studies showed that TaPer12-3A maintained H2O2 homeostasis by scavenging excess H2O2 and participated in the biosynthesis and catabolism pathways of gibberellic acid and abscisic acid to regulate SD and germination.

CONCLUSION

These findings not only provide new insights for future functional analysis of TaPer12-3A in regulating wheat SD and germination but also provide a target gene for breeding wheat varieties with high pre-harvest sprouting resistance by gene editing technology.

Genetics of a diverse soft winter wheat population for pre-harvest sprouting, agronomic, and flour quality traits

Soft winter wheat has been adapted to the north-central, north-western, and south-central United States over hundreds of years for optimal yield, height, heading date, and pathogen and pest resistance. Environmental factors like weather affect abiotic traits such as pre-harvest sprouting resistance. However, pre-harvest sprouting has rarely been a target for breeding. Owing to changing weather patterns from climate change, pre-harvest sprouting resistance is needed to prevent significant crop losses not only in the United States, but worldwide. Twenty-two traits including age of breeding line as well as agronomic, flour quality, and pre-harvest sprouting traits were studied in a population of 188 lines representing genetic diversity over 200 years of soft winter wheat breeding. Some traits were correlated with one another by principal components analysis and Pearson's correlations. A genome-wide association study using 1,978 markers uncovered a total of 102 regions encompassing 226 quantitative trait nucleotides. Twenty-six regions overlapped multiple traits with common significant markers. Many of these traits were also found to be correlated by Pearson's correlation and principal components analyses. Most pre-harvest sprouting regions were not co-located with agronomic traits and thus useful for crop improvement against climate change without affecting crop performance. Six different genome-wide association statistical models (GLM, MLM, MLMM, FarmCPU, BLINK, and SUPER) were utilized to search for reasonable models to analyze soft winter wheat populations with increased markers and/or breeding lines going forward. Some flour quality and agronomic traits seem to have been selected over time, but not pre-harvest sprouting. It appears possible to select for pre-harvest sprouting resistance without impacting flour quality or the agronomic value of soft winter wheat.

Awned versus awnless wheat spikes: does it matter?

Awnless and awned wheat is found across the globe. Archeological and historical records show that the wheat spike was predominantly awned across the many millennia following domestication. Thus, ancient farmers did not select against awns at least until the last millennium. Here, we describe the evolution and domestication of wheat awns, quantifying their role in spike photosynthesis and yield under contrasting environments. Awns increase grain weight directly (increasing the size of all grains) or indirectly (increasing the failure of distal grains), but not as a consequence of additional spike photosynthesis. However, a trade-off is produced through decreasing grain number. Thus, favorable effects of awns on yield are not consistently found across environments.

Impact of Dairy Ingredients on Wheat Flour Dough Rheology and Bread Properties

The incorporation of dairy ingredients, such as milk or acid whey in bread, is advantageous considering their functional properties and the positive effects on consumers’ health. The introduction of an ingredient in bread making process requires the evaluation of dough behavior and final product quality. Thus, the influence of water replacement by milk or acid whey on the characteristics of wheat flour dough and bread was studied. Dynamic rheological measurements were performed in order to evaluate the viscoelastic properties of dough. Compared to the control, an increase of the elastic character of dough for samples with milk and a decrease for those with acid whey was observed. The resistance to deformation decreased when water was substituted with more than 25% milk and increased for samples with up to 25% acid whey. Higher maximum gelatinization temperatures were obtained when water was substituted by milk or acid whey. Bread crumb presented higher firmness, lower volume and porosity for samples with dairy ingredients compared to the control, therefore, replacement levels lower than 25% were recommended in order to minimize this negative effect. Bread elasticity, chewiness, resilience, pores density and size were improved at replacement levels lower than 25%, while for the sensory characteristics of the specialty bread, high scores were obtained. These results can be helpful for processors, in order to develop and optimize bread with dairy ingredients.

Evaluation of rheological parameters of dough with ferrous lactate and ferrous gluconate

The aim of this study was to analyse the effect ferrous gluconate and ferrous lactate on the rheological be- haviour of dough from a high extraction rate. For fortification of wheat flour, we used iron ions in a divalent form in amounts of 3, 4, and 5 mg/100 g. To record the rheological characteriscics of the fortified wheat flour dough, Farino- graph, Amilograph, Falling Number, Rheofermentometer, and Thermo Haake Mars dynamic rheometer were applied. The Farinograph did not show significant changes in the water absortion values in the samples with ferrous salts. As for dough development time and dough stability, small amounts of ferrous additives increased and large amounts de- creased those parameters. The effect was more significant in the samples with ions from gluconate form than from lactate salt. The Amylograph recorded an increased peak viscosity with an increasing ferrous salt quantity. That was the case for both ferrous salt forms. The increased was in a similar way for both types of ferrous salt forms used. The total CO volume production and the retention coefficient obtained with the help of the Rheofermentometer device increased in the dough samples with 3 and 4 mg of iron/100 g. However, the addition of 5 mg of iron decreased those indicarors. The decrease was more significant for iron ions from ferrous ferrous gluconate than from ferrous lactate. The fundamental rheological properties of the dough were analysed by using a frequency sweep and oscillatory tem- perature sweep test. Ferrous lactate and ferrous gluconate influenced both the fundamental and empirical rheological properrties og the dough in similar way.

Prediction of Pasting Properties of Dough from Mixolab Measurements Using Artificial Neuronal Networks

An artificial neuronal network (ANN) system was conducted to predict the Mixolab parameters which described the wheat flour starch-amylase part (torques C3, C4, C5, and the difference between C3-C4and C5-C4, respectively) from physicochemical properties (wet gluten, gluten deformation index, Falling number, moisture content, water absorption) of 10 different refined wheat flourssupplemented bydifferent levels of fungal α-amylase addition. All Mixolab parameters analyzed and the Falling number values were reduced with the increased level of α-amylase addition. The ANN results accurately predicted the Mixolab parameters based on wheat flours physicochemical properties and α-amylase addition. ANN analyses showed that moisture content was the most sensitive parameter in influencing Mixolab maximum torque C3 and the difference between torques C3 and C4, while wet gluten was the most sensitive parameter in influencing minimum torque C4 and the difference between torques C5 and C4, and α-amylase level was the most sensitive parameter in predicting maximum torque C5. It is obvious that the Falling number of all the Mixolab characteristics best predicted the difference between torques C3 and C4.

Rheological Properties of Wheat-Flaxseed Composite Flours Assessed by Mixolab and Their Relation to Quality Features

The effect of adding brown and golden flaxseed variety flours (5%, 10%, 15% and 20% w/w) to wheat flours of different quality for bread-making on Mixolab dough rheological properties and bread quality was studied. The flaxseed-wheat composite flour parameters determined such as fat, protein (PR), ash and carbohydrates (CHS) increased by increasing the level of flaxseed whereas the moisture content (MC) decreased. The Falling Number values (FN) determined for the wheat-flaxseed composite flours increased by increasing the level of flaxseed. Within Mixolab data, greater differences were attributed to the eight parameters analysed: water absorption, dough development time, dough stability and all Mixolab torques during the heating and cooling stages. Also, a general decreased was also recorded for the differences between Mixolab torques which measures the starching speed (C3-2), the enzymatic degradation speed (C4-3) and the starch retrogradation rate (C5-4), whereas the difference which measures the speed of protein weakening due to heat (C1-2) increased. Composite dough behaviour presented a close positive relationship between MC and DT, and FN and PR with the C1-2 at a level of p < 0.05. The bread physical and sensory quality was improved up to a level of 10-15% flaxseed flour addition in wheat flour.