Abstract
Seaweeds are regarded as a sustainable source of food protein, but protein extraction is severely impaired by the complex extracellular matrix. In this work, we investigated the protein-level effects of enzymatic extraction upstream of carrageenan extraction for the industrial red seaweed Eucheuma denticulatum. Combination of quantitative proteomics and bioinformatic prediction of subcellular localization was shown to have immense potential for process evaluation; even in the case of poorly annotated species such as E. denticulatum. Applying cell wall degrading enzymes markedly improved the relative recovery of intracellular proteins compared to treatment with proteolytic enzymes or no enzymatic treatment. Moreover, results suggest that proteomics data may prove useful for characterizing amino acid composition and that length-normalization is a viable approach for relative protein quantification in non-specific analysis. Importantly, the extracts were abundant in proteins, which contained both previously verified and novel, potential bioactive peptides, highlighting their potential for application as functional food ingredients.
Highlights
The demand for protein-rich foods is increasing worldwide, partly due to increasing world population and economic growth, enabling more people in poverty to eat more protein-rich foods (Godfray et al, 2018)
Additional factors, e.g. allergenicity and sensory properties of co-extracted phenolics, are relevant to consider when assessing the quality of a food protein source, studies indicate that these aspects might, to functional properties, be improved through e.g. enzymatic hydrolysis (Sha & Xiong, 2020)
Protein contents determined as true protein (ΣAA) show no statistically significant difference (p < 0.05) compared to Total soluble protein (TSP) by Qubit, when extracts are solubilized in detergent-containing buffer
Summary
The demand for protein-rich foods is increasing worldwide, partly due to increasing world population and economic growth, enabling more people in poverty to eat more protein-rich foods (Godfray et al, 2018). Half of habitable land is used for agriculture, where around 80% is used for livestock farming and contributes to loss of biodiversity, geological problems, and increased risk of zoonotic disease emergence (Poore & Nemecek, 2018) These major problems related to conventional animal agriculture in dustry provide a strong case for investigating alternative sources of protein for human consumption. Plant-based protein and food products are generally more accepted by consumers (Onwezen, Bouwman, Reinders, & Dagevos, 2021) In addition to their nutritional qualities, food protein may be considered a highly valuable source of biologically active and/or functional peptides embedded in the parent protein (Sanchez & Vazquez, 2017). Additional factors, e.g. allergenicity and sensory properties of co-extracted phenolics, are relevant to consider when assessing the quality of a food protein source, studies indicate that these aspects might, to functional properties, be improved through e.g. enzymatic hydrolysis (Sha & Xiong, 2020)
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