Molecular spectroscopy to assess protein structures within cereal systems

Abstract

Gluten proteins play a crucial role in the properties and quality of intermediate and final wheat-based bakery products such as bread and crackers. Despite their importance, gluten protein structures and their interactions with other dough components have remained poorly understood due to the difficulty of studying these proteins in complex matrices without disturbing them. The present work reviews the principles, advantages, and limitations of vibrational and luminescence spectroscopy to non-invasively assess protein structure in complex cereal systems. Valuable insights into protein conformation and interactions can be obtained using these techniques, individually or in combination. The utilization of vibrational and luminescence spectroscopy techniques is currently underexplored in cereal science. The insights these techniques provide, however, can assist to improve the quality of cereal-based products through tailoring composition and/or processing conditions based on their effects on protein structure and interactions.