AJ Cann
Wheat is the most important food crop in the temperate world, being used to produce bread, pasta, noodles and a range of other baked goods and foods. The ability to produce this wide range of products is largely determined by the grain storage proteins (prolamins), which form a viscoelastic network, called gluten, in dough formed from wheat flour. The classification into gliadins and glutenins has proved to be remarkably durable, but does not reflect the true molecular and evolutionary relationships of the proteins.
The ω-gliadin storage proteins of wheat are of interest in relation to their impact on grain processing properties and their role in food allergy, particularly the ω-5 sub-group and wheat-dependent exercise-induced anaphylaxis. The ω-gliadins are also known to be responsive to nitrogen application. A recent study published in Annals of Botany compares the effects of cultivar and nitrogen availability on the synthesis and deposition of ω-gliadins in wheat grown under field conditions in the UK, including temporal and spatial analyses at the protein and transcript levels.
The results show that wheat ω-gliadins vary in amount and composition between cultivars, and in their response to nitrogen supply. Their spatial distribution is also affected by nitrogen supply, being most highly concentrated in the sub-aleurone cells of the starchy endosperm under higher nitrogen availability.
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