143 Gluten density and flour quality.

M. I. P. KOVACS and G. Dahlke. Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada, Cereal Research Centre, 195 Dafoe Road, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3T 2M9.

Here we would like to introduce the heat denatured wet gluten density measurement as an indicator of gluten and/or flour quality. Wet gluten was isolated from flour of a set of 20 cultivars having a wide range of glutenin subunits and flour quality. The washed wet gluten was molded between two plates and suspended in boiling water for 90 s. The density was calculated from six 1 cm diameter discs punched out from the heat-denatured gluten sheets. Significant relationships were obtained between packing densities and the various tests used to predict flour quality, such as mixograph, extensograph, sedimentation volume, gluten and noodle viscoelasticity, monomeric proteins, insoluble and soluble glutenins, residue proteins, swelling index of glutenins and some of the other tests used in our wheat breeding program.