Journal
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
Volume 21, Issue 11, Pages -Publisher
MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/ijms21113876
Keywords
wheat; Triticum aestivum; asparagine metabolism; Maillard reaction; acrylamide; food safety; amino acid metabolism; glutathione; starch synthesis; sulphur deficiency
Funding
- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) SWBio iCASE DTP Studentship
- University of Bristol
- AHDB
- KWS UK Ltd.
- Saaten Union UK Ltd.
- RAGT Seeds Ltd.
- Syngenta UK Ltd.
- Limagrain UK Ltd.
- BBSRC Collaborative Training Partnership Studentship
- University of Reading
- Mondelez UK RD Ltd.
- BBSRC [BB/P016855/1]
- BBSRC [1798012, BBS/E/C/000I0220] Funding Source: UKRI
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Free (soluble, non-protein) asparagine concentration can increase many-fold in wheat grain in response to sulphur deficiency. This exacerbates a major food safety and regulatory compliance problem for the food industry because free asparagine may be converted to the carcinogenic contaminant, acrylamide, during baking and processing. Here, we describe the predominant route for the conversion of asparagine to acrylamide in the Maillard reaction. The effect of sulphur deficiency and its interaction with nitrogen availability is reviewed, and we reiterate our advice that sulphur should be applied to wheat being grown for human consumption at a rate of 20 kg per hectare. We describe the genetic control of free asparagine accumulation, including genes that encode metabolic enzymes (asparagine synthetase, glutamine synthetase, glutamate synthetase, and asparaginase), regulatory protein kinases (sucrose nonfermenting-1 (SNF1)-related protein kinase-1 (SnRK1) and general control nonderepressible-2 (GCN2)), and basic leucine zipper (bZIP) transcription factors, and how this genetic control responds to sulphur, highlighting the importance of asparagine synthetase-2 (ASN2) expression in the embryo. We show that expression of glutamate-cysteine ligase is reduced in response to sulphur deficiency, probably compromising glutathione synthesis. Finally, we describe unexpected effects of sulphur deficiency on carbon metabolism in the endosperm, with large increases in expression of sucrose synthase-2 (SuSy2) and starch synthases.
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