OSU takes lead to help the wheat industry
By Mandy Gross
FAPC Manager of Communications Services
(Stillwater, Okla. – Feb. 15, 2012) From wheat breeders to bakers to consumers of a wheat product, Oklahoma State University is working on a research project that will benefit members of the wheat industry.
OSU researchers and students have teamed together to develop a test that will contribute to the riddle of better measurement of fundamental physical properties of wheat gluten and dough, which are not currently done in cereal chemistry.
Patricia Rayas, cereal chemist for OSU’s Robert M. Kerr Food & Agricultural Products Center and biochemistry and molecular biology professor, is the lead investigator on the project.
“Our goal is to develop a rapid test in which we can describe the deformation and recovery of gluten and dough,” Rayas said. “We want to improve the level of understanding that we have by incorporating fundamental material properties that are used in polymer science into biological polymers of gluten proteins in wheat and cereal chemistry.”
A number of physical tools are presently available in the wheat industry. These tests were developed in the 50s and measure empirical properties used to understand wheat quality and functionality by applying large deformations and extracting information of its behavior.
However, Rayas and her team are working on an easy and rapid test, which will measure fundamental properties of gluten and dough by applying large or small deformations and analyzing the recovery. The results then can be compared to the empirical properties of the same gluten and dough.
“Everyone in the wheat industry will benefit from the breeder to the baker,” Rayas said. “This testing will give a better understanding to the variation of these basic properties and how this variation relates to something they are interested in measuring.”
Testing in progress
The instrument used during the test shapes dough or the gluten extracted from the dough into short, cylinder forms and compresses it at a constant force for 30 seconds. The instrument then lifts the load allowing the material to recover or to go back to its original shape to obtain viscous and elastic components.
The equipment electronically measures the beginning height, end height, how much it comes back to its original shape and the speed of the recovery.
“The test has been designed for the specific ranges of gluten and dough,” Rayas said. “It also is rapid in analyzing samples starting with flour in relation to empirical testing currently used in industry.”
One sample ran in duplicate takes 30 minutes for gluten and 2 hours for dough for the new test, compared to 30 minutes to 2 days with empirical testing.
Interacting with industry
As a part of the study, Rayas and her team are working with known cultivars from all wheat classes grown in the United States and with hard red winter wheat breeder and commercial samples.
Currently, they are expanding the number of samples from OSU’s hard red winter wheat breeding program and most of the Southern Great Plains region breeding programs.
Rayas said working with Oklahoma wheat breeders, as well as other states, will provide beneficial information to see how much variation is in this wheat class.
“This will help the breeders see how the indices obtained from these fundamental properties are related to what they traditionally measure in their program,” she said. “We can make the connection of the relation with what they are presently measuring empirically. We can describe the relation and variation that can affect a specific characteristic of interest related to attributes of quality, based on the most likely components and contributors that make them behave differently.”
The work with the breeders will conclude in 2 years with the first phase focusing on gluten and the second phase testing dough.
Working as a team
During the 4-year duration of the project, many individuals have been involved and have had an active role in the project.
“The students have been a major part of the project,” Rayas said. “The graduate students have trained the undergraduate students in every single step, including preparation of reports. The undergraduate students have worked along the graduate students and have been the heart and soul of the test.”
Pavalee Chompoorat, food science doctoral student, worked on a similar project for her master’s degree and is expanding her research by working on this project.
“My study focuses on the comparison of gluten proteins determining the visco-elastic properties using physical tests, such as creep recovery and compression,” she said. “Gluten proteins have diversity in composition, and this diversity causes a large variation in their properties during processing.”
Bryanna Johnson, biochemistry and molecular biology senior with a minor in microbiology, started working on the project in July 2011.
“I really enjoy working with Dr. Rayas and the other members of the team,” Johnson said. “Dr. Rayas is amazing and very smart. She makes learning fun.”
Johnson’s role in the project consists of preparing the mixture of flours, adding specific gluten protein types in percent substitutions and analyzing the influence of those proteins in how the gluten recovers.
“I didn’t know how important the gluten proteins and even very specific gluten proteins were for baking,” she said. “The project has given me a better understanding of the technical stages to the end product.”
Other students involved in the project include Walter Lim, former food science master’s student, who was the first student working on the project, and Nicole Barreras, biochemistry and molecular biology undergraduate student. Visiting scientist Soline Sandré also assisted on the project.
Collaborating with research groups
OSU’s contributions are part of a larger research team that includes the United States Department of Agriculture Grain Inspection, Packers & Stockyards Administration and Agricultural Research Service; Cornell University; and Perten Instruments.
Because of the comprehensive testing involved in the project, the research groups work as a team to schedule tests and samples to perform analysis. Members from each group also meet twice a year to discuss and better evaluate the goals of the project.
“From researchers and scientists to students to industry personnel, it’s been a rewarding experience for all,” Rayas said. “
Focusing on progress
The project’s goal is to gain further insight into the behavior of gluten and dough under different strains, and this work presents progress toward the development of a more rapid gluten functionality that includes a form of strength test, Rayas said.
“At this junction, it is unclear which factors underlie the greatest variation in gluten strength exhibited by the tested wheat cultivars,” she said. “Although, polymer science suggests that it would most like be closely related to the molecular weight distribution, quantity of cross links and possible entanglements of the macromolecules formed by gluten proteins. The most valuable outcome of this project for the wheat industry is to have a rapid test that can be used to improve the description of gluten variability and specific indices to measure such variability.”
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Oklahoma State University, U.S. Department of Agriculture, State and Local Governments Cooperating. The Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service offers its programs to all eligible persons regardless of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, disability, or status as a veteran, and is an equal opportunity employer.
