Cereal Chem 38:336 - 348.  |  VIEW ARTICLE

A Lipoprotein Model of Wheat Gluten Structure.

J. C. Grosskreutz. Copyright 1961 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

Electron micrographs and X-ray studies of gluten have shown the proteins to exist in platelet form of the order of 70A thick. Extraction of the phospholipids does not affect the basic platelet, but does seriously impair their ability to bond into sheets capable of sustaining large plastic deformations. X-ray evidence of the phospholipid structure in gluten favors the assumption that there exist well-oriented bimolecular leaflets of the type found in myelin figures. On the basis of the information at hand, a lipoprotein model is postulated which occupies some 2 to 5% of the elastic gluten structure. Consideration of the nature and strength of the bonds present in a hypothetical gluten sheet shows that the proposed lipoprotein model is capable of providing gluten with the plasticity necessary for optimum baking characteristics.