Cereal Chem 72:213-216  |  VIEW ARTICLE

Amino Acid Composition of Selected Strains of Diploid Wheat, Triticum monococcum L.

R. Acquistucci, M. G. D'Egidio, and V. Vallega. Copyright 1995 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

Diploid wheat (Triticum monococcum L., einkorn) is of interest both as a crop and as a source of genes unavailable in the more widely grown wheat species, T. aestivum L. (common wheat) and T. durum Desf. (durum wheat). The biochemical constituents of its seeds, however, have been investigated very little. In this study, 15 strains of T. monococcum and two modern cultivars of common wheat and durum wheat were compared with regard to grain protein content and amino acid composition of seed proteins. Differences in amino acid composition between these three species of wheat and among diploid wheat strains were minimal, especially after amino acid values were adjusted to a common protein level. One of the einkorn accessions examined, however, presented a deviant amino acid profile. This strain may be of use for investigating the biosynthetic pathway of wheat proteins. Among einkorns, correlations between grain protein content and amino acid values were positive for glutamine and proline and negative for threonine, 1/2 cystine, valine, isoleucine, leucine, asparagine, serine, glycine, and alanine.