Research Project: Enhancement of Hard Spring Wheat, Durum, and Oat Quality

Location: Cereal Crops Research

2017 Annual Report

Objectives
Objective 1: Develop accurate and efficient laboratory methods to evaluate whole wheat milling and bread-making quality of hard spring wheat. Sub-Objectives: 1.A. Develop a whole wheat experimental milling procedure. 1.B. Develop and adapt mixograph techniques for the evaluation of whole wheat flour. 1.C. Identify variation in whole wheat milling and bread-making quality for hard spring wheat genotypes. Objective 2: Identify variation in biochemical components important to end-use quality and functionality, develop prediction models for those components, and evaluate their influence on whole wheat bread-making characteristics of hard spring wheat. Sub-Objectives: 2.A. Identify variation in protein molecular weight distribution (MWD) and its influence on whole wheat bread-making quality, and develop NIR calibration models of protein MWD parameters. 2.B. Identify variation in arabinoxylans and its influence on whole wheat bread-making quality, and develop an NIR prediction model. 2.C. Identify variations in phenolics and antioxidant activity potential in hard spring wheat lines. 2.D. Develop methods to rapidly and accurately predict phenolics and antioxidant activity potential in hard spring wheat using FT-NIR spectroscopy. 2.E. Evaluate the effect of processing on phenolics and antioxidant activity potential during bread-making. Objective 3: Identify and evaluate processing and intrinsic end-use quality traits of experimental lines of hard spring wheat, durum, and oat as part of a Congressionally-designed direct mission of service. - This Objective is EXEMPT from review because, by Legislative (Congressional) mandate, it is a direct mission of service guided and overseen by the Wheat Quality Council. Sub-Objectives: 3.A. Identify and evaluate processing and intrinsic end-use quality traits of experimental hard spring and durum wheat lines. 3.B. Evaluate quality traits of experimental oat lines.

Approach
The Hard Red Spring and Durum Wheat Quality Laboratory will evaluate processing and end-use quality traits of breeders’ experimental lines of wheat relative to physical and biochemical attributes and genetic and environmental influences. This research is important to identify wheat lines that are of superior milling, baking, and processing quality before they are considered for commercial release. Ultimately, the value of this research lies in its potential to enhance international trade of U.S. wheat and reduce competition for overseas markets. Quality evaluation also will be performed for oat lines to increase market value of U.S. oats. Recently, demand for whole-wheat-based foods has been increasing due to well-known beneficial health effects. However, poor end-use quality of whole wheat flour is acknowledged as a problem in the baking industry. Research will be conducted to develop laboratory methods to evaluate whole wheat milling and bread-making quality, and will contribute to the rapid assessment of whole wheat bread-making quality. Research will be conducted to evaluate variation in proteins, arabinoxylans, phenolics, and antioxidant potential in hard spring wheat lines and to develop methods to rapidly predict these components. The role of these components in dough and bread-making properties will also be investigated. This research is important since these components are present in whole grains, mainly in the bran. The benefits of this research will be in the production of wheat germplasm that contains high levels of healthy components, as well as improved end-use quality for the production of whole wheat-based products.

Progress Report
Research was performed to determine optimal wheat tempering conditions for whole wheat milling of hard red spring (HRS) wheat. Wheat samples with different levels of grain hardness were individually tested for milling quality at varying levels of grain tempering moisture content and conditioning time. The tempering moisture level significantly influenced wheat kernel, milling, and mixing characteristics. A tempering level of 16 % moisture content was found to be optimal for whole wheat milling of HRS wheat. This information will help improve experimental milling of whole wheat flour for HRS wheat quality evaluation. This work directly relates to objective 1. Efforts continued to identify variation in whole wheat milling and bread-making quality traits for hard spring wheat genotypes. Eleven hard red spring (HRS) wheat varieties grown at 4 locations were milled and analyzed for mixing characteristics using a mixograph. The mixing profile data was modelled to a non-linear equation to help interpretation of mixing profiles of HRS wheat. Experimental bread-making will be performed for the sample set to investigate the influence of growing environment and genotypes on variation in whole wheat bread-making quality characteristics. The information obtained from this research will help to screen and breed HRS wheat varieties to improve whole wheat bread-making quality in HRS wheat breeding program. This work directly relates to objective 1. Analysis of variation in protein size distribution and arabinoxylan content, and their association with quality characteristics of hard red spring (HRS) wheat continued. Analyses of protein and arabinoxylan are underway for the same 44 wheat samples that were used for whole wheat quality research. Research is also in progress to calibrate prediction models for wheat quality traits, protein size distribution parameters, and arabinoxylan content using near infrared technology. Near infrared spectra also were collected from the 44 wheat samples mentioned above. The development of near infrared models will help to determine those parameters without using complex and time-consuming analytical procedures. The information obtained from this research will contribute to improving evaluation of whole wheat bread-making quality and arabinoxylans by enhancing the speed of quality evaluation in HRS wheat breeding programs, and the milling and bread-making industries. This work directly relates to objective 2. Investigation of phenolic profile and antioxidant activity potential in hard spring wheat continued. Forty genotypes grown at up to seven locations in the Northern Great Plains were analyzed for phenolic profile and antioxidant activity potential. This included investigation of the variation in phenolic and antioxidant activity potential in 10 disease-resistant and disease-susceptible genotypes grown in 5 locations in South Dakota, and data analysis is currently in progress. The information gained from this research will help wheat breeders in the region select genotypes with consistently high levels of phenolics and antioxidant activity potential for the production of whole wheat products with potential health benefits. This work directly relates to objective 2. Method development to rapidly predict phenolics and antioxidant activity potential using Fourier Transform Near-Infrared (FT-NIR) spectroscopy is in progress. NIR spectra and wet chemistry data on 150 hard spring wheat lines from South Dakota were collected. Second year samples were also collected for NIR scanning and wet chemistry analysis. The development of NIR calibration curves will be beneficial to wheat breeders for rapid screening and selection of genotypes with high levels of phenolics and antioxidant activity potential. This work directly relates to objective 2. The Hard Red Spring Wheat Quality Laboratory (WQL) analyzed physical and biochemical quality traits of approximately 3800 samples of hard spring and durum wheat, and 90 einkorn and emmer wheat. Samples were submitted by private and public wheat breeders involved in wheat germplasm improvement and by geneticists involved in identification of genes associated with end-use quality traits. The WQL provided over 40 different test related to wheat kernel characteristics, milling performance, and flour, semolina, dough, and baking quality. This work directly relates to objective 3. In cooperation with the Wheat Quality Council (WQC), seven experimental lines of hard spring wheat that were grown at up to 5 locations were evaluated along with the check cultivar Glenn. The WQL tested each line for kernel, milling, flour, dough, and bread-baking quality traits, coordinated the baking quality test results from 12 independent public and private testing laboratories, and analyzed the data. Results were published, presented, and discussed at the annual WQC meeting. Interactions with the WQC serve as a means to obtain industry feedback on the milling and baking quality traits of advanced experimental lines of wheat that are considered for release into commercial production. A 2015 variety survey showed that all of the top five hard spring wheat cultivars planted in North Dakota, Minnesota, and South Dakota were tested by the WQC program. This work directly relates to objective 3. We evaluated important chemical components such as protein, beta-glucan, and oil content for oat groat samples that were provided by oat breeders. Oat groat samples that were analyzed included 233 samples from the Uniform Midseason Oat Performance Nursery and 60 samples from the Uniform Early Oat Performance Nursery. Protein, beta-glucan, and oil content were determined using a near infrared analyzer, and the near infrared prediction equations for protein, beta-glucan, and oil content were calibrated and used to screen oat varieties. We also initiated research to evaluate oat groat physical characteristics and their possible association with oat quality characteristics using a Single Kernel Characterization System. This work will aid the release of oat cultivars with improved quality traits (including nutritionally important biochemical components), increase the market value and consumption of U.S. oats, and benefit human health. This work directly relates to objective 3. Free asparagine is a precursor involved in the formation of acrylamide during baking. Since acrylamide is a possible carcinogen, a reduction in the level of free asparagine in hard red spring (HRS) wheat is desirable. Possible associations between protein composition parameters and free asparagine concentration in HRS wheat were investigated and a protein component was identified that had a negative correlation with free asparagine concentration. Since free asparagine analysis is very complex and time consuming, the ability to use this protein component as an indicator of asparagine concentration could be useful for screening asparagine concentration in HRS wheat breeding programs. This work directly relates to objective 3. Cooked pasta firmness is an important durum quality characteristic to satisfy chewiness for some people. In the course of research to identify protein components that may be useful for durum wheat quality evaluation, protein parameters were identified that had significant correlations with firmness of cooked pasta. This information will be useful for evaluation of durum wheat varieties to improve pasta eating quality. This work directly relates to objective 3.

Accomplishments
1. Development of improved wheat germplasm. Wheat producers, milling and baking industries, and overseas customers require high standards in the quality of wheat to meet their evolving needs. The Hard Red Spring and Durum Wheat Quality Laboratory contributed wheat end-use quality data that helped the development of improved wheat germplasm and the subsequent release of new cultivars of spring and durum wheat for commercial production. Specifically, this work contributed to the release of one hard spring wheat cultivar, "Lang-MN" by the University of Minnesota in January 2017.

Review Publications
Ohm, J.-B., Lee, C.W., Cho, K. 2016. Germinated wheat: Phytochemical composition and mixing characteristics. Cereal Chemistry. 93(6):612-617.
Glover, K.D., Kleinjan, J.L., Jin, Y., Osborne, L.E., Ingemansen, J.A., Turnipseed, E.B., Ohm, J. 2017. Registration of 'Prevail' hard red spring wheat. Journal of Plant Registrations. 11(1):55-60. doi:10.3198/jpr2016.05.0026crc.
Cho, K., Lee, C.W., Ohm, J.-B. 2016. In vitro study on effect of germinated wheat on human breast cancer cells. Cereal Chemistry. 93(6):647-649.
Graybosch, R.A., Ohm, J., Dykes, L. 2016. Observations on the quality characteristics of waxy (amylose-free) winter wheats. Cereal Chemistry. 93(6):599-604.
Herken, E., Simsek, S., Ohm, J.-B., Yurdunuseven, A. 2016. Effect of mahaleb on cookie quality. Journal of Food Processing and Preservation Research. doi: 10.1111/jfpp.13032.
Malalgoda, M., Ohm, J.-B., Meinhardt, S., Chao, S., Simsek, S. 2017. Cluster analysis of historical and modern hard red spring wheat cultivars based on parentage and HPLC analysis of gluten-forming proteins. Cereal Chemistry. 94:560-567.
Sadia, A., Dykes, L., Deng, Y. 2016. Transformation of adsorbed aflatoxin B1 on smectite at elevated temperatures. Clays and Clay Minerals. 64(3):220-229. doi:10.1346/CCMN.2016.0640306.
Ritchie, L.E., Taddeo, S.S., Weeks, B.R., Carroll, R.J., Dykes, L., Rooney, L.W., Turner, N.D. 2017. Impact of novel sorghum bran diets on DSS-induced colitis. Nutrients. 9:330. doi: 10.3390/nu9040330.
Ohm, J.-B., Mergoum, M., Simsek, S. 2017. Variation of free asparagine concentration and association with quality parameters for hard red spring wheat grown in North Dakota. Cereal Chemistry. 94(4):712-716.
Ohm, J.-B., Manthey, F., Elias, E.M. 2017. Variation and correlation of protein molecular weight distribution and semolina quality parameters for durum genotypes grown in North Dakota. Cereal Chemistry. 94(4):780-788.