Cereal Chem 66:427-431   |  VIEW ARTICLE

Soil Moisture Effects on Bread Loaf Quality and Evaluation of Gliadins with Reversed-Phase High-Performance Liquid Chromatography.

J. R. Bunker, R. H. Lockerman, C. F. McGuire, T. K. Blake, and R. E. Engel. Copyright 1989 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

The effects of field soil moisture on hard wheat protein fractions influencing bread baking quality have not been characterized. Four spring wheat accessions (Newana, Fortuna, MT 7819, and MT 8182) were replicated four times across a controlled soil moisture gradient at Manhattan, MT, in 1986 and at Huntley, MT, in 1987. The soil moisture gradient was established with a modified lin e-source sprinkler irrigation system to provide four moisture regimes at Manhattan and five at Huntley. Grain samples from each plot were milled, baked, and evaluated for loaf volume and crumb score. Gliadins were extracted with 70% (v/v) ethanol and analyzed by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography using a modified linear gradient. The relative area (expressed as a percentage) of a group of late-eluting gliadin peaks (referred to as the quality gliadin fraction) to the total chromatogram area increased with increased evapotranspiration (ET) for Newana and MT 8182 at both sites and for MT 7819 at Huntley. The relative ratio of the quality gliadin fraction to total chromatogram area was negatively associated with loaf volume. However, no association was found between increased ET and relative quality gliadin fraction for Fortuna at either site, although loaf volume was greatly increased over increased ET for this accession at Huntley.