abstract
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Western Canada is the primary growing region for Canada Western Red Spring (CWRS) wheat which is prized both domestically and internationally for its superb milling qualities, high protein and desirable dough handling capabilities. Unfortunately, due to the widespread acreage devoted to this crop from the 49th parallel to the Peace River area of northern BC the crop is often subject to varying amounts of frost damage due to unexpected cold temperatures. It has been well characterized that frost can significantly increase the hardness of wheat kernels resulting in poorer milling performance (>5% yield), higher ash levels and greater starch damage. Previous UPLC analyses has quantitated peaks in frosted kernels relative to sound kernels however these peaks were not individual proteins. MS attached to UPLC offers the ability to discriminate individual proteins under peaks. In an attempt to bring greater objectivity to the grading of wheat damaged by frost, a sample of AAC Brandon which had been subjected to premature frost damage was physically divided into a sound, light, moderate, heavy and hard frost damage via trained CGC inspectors. Kernel masses ranged from 22.7 mg for hard frosted to 39.4 mg for sound kernels. Individual kernels of wheat in each parcel were sequentially extracted with alcohol to isolate gliadins from glutenins, separated by a UPLC system using a C-8 RP column and directly analyzed on a Time of Flight Synapt G2 mass spectrometer to characterize differences in the protein matrix. Intensities of the individual proteins were corrected for individual seed weight and an internal standard, B-lactoglobulin. As anticipated significant differences in the relative abundance of HMW-GS were observed within individual hard frosted kernels versus sound with wide variations in the reduction of individual HMW-GS ranging from 0 to >80% in Bx7*. The most intense LMW, 42 929 Da, increased dramatically in relative abundance, ~64% in hard frosted kernels (12.5% of total) relative to sound kernels (7.7% of total), while heavily frosted kernels average a modest 19% increase. This protein displays the characteristic tyrosine loss (163 Da) proteo-pairing seen in other LMWs with its partner (42 765 Da) at 0.2min earlier retention time. Only two other additional proteins (38 291 & 43 033 Da) displayed a significant increase in relative abundance (61 & 37%, respectively) in the frosted relative to the sound kernels. No other significant changes in extracted proteins were observed of this magnitude in the extracted proteins deconvoluted.