VARIATION FOR GLUTEN COMPONENTS, DETECTED BY RP-HPLC, IN CULTIVARS GROWN AT DIFFERENT LOCATIONS AND ITS EFFECT ON TECHNOLOGICAL PROPERTIES.

Flour technological properties, responsible for end product characteristics, are the result of genetical, biochemical, agronomic and environmental factors. Among biochemical constituents, storage proteins are mainly responsible of quality differences at the varietal level. Biochemical and genetical analyses have in fact allowed us to establish close relationship between protein components and dough rheological properties. The presence of certain allelic variants for gliadin and glutenin components determines the intrinsic or potential quality of a cultivar, while environmental factors, such as soil, climate, and agronomie practices, influence actual flour technological properties. Quantitative variation in different classes of storage proteins might be responsible for these differences. RP-HPLC (reversed phase-high performance liquid chromatography), giving accurate measurements of quantitative variations in different gluten fractions (Bietz, 1983), might help in understanding the effect of environmental variations on wheat technological properties.