Cereal Chem 65:362-366   |  VIEW ARTICLE

Quantitative Variation Among Gliadins of Wheats Grown in Different Environments.

F. R. Huebner and J. A. Bietz. Copyright 1988 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

Reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography can quickly and accurately analyze small flour samples, permitting analysis of grain characteristics related to functional properties. A shortage of soil sulfur decreases wheat yield and flour quality. We therefore used reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography to examine quantitative differences among gliadins from the wheat varities. Shortim, Egt, and Olympic grown with different levels of sulfur fertilizer. We also examined gliadins from the varieties Butte and Coteau from a normal range of environments to better define quantitative variability within a genotype. For wheats grown at different sulfur fertilization levels, no qualitative differences among gliadins were apparent, but major quantitative variation exists, particularly for early-eluting, sulfur-poor omega- gliadins. Significant quantitative variation also exists for gliadins from different locations, suggesting a major role of weather or other environmental factors during kernel development on gliadin synthesis. This level of quantitative environmental variability is not apparent by other procedures, and may influence varietal identification through gliadin analysis.