From the pages of Agricultural Research magazine Lab-Built Wheat Gene May Raise Dough Quality Wheat plants of the future might provide grain for designer flours that yield delicious, wholesome new breads, pastas, and other appetizing foods. These futuristic flours are the target of genetic engineering experiments conducted by Agricultural Research Service scientists at the Western Regional Research Center in Albany, California. These glutenins are critical to making strong dough. Strong dough, explains geneticist Olin D. Anderson, is able to trap tiny bubbles of carbon dioxide gas formed naturally by yeast during mixing and rising.
Bubbles enable dough to rise, helping form high, light, loaves.
Dough strength and the ability to contain gas bubbles is known as viscoelasticity. They did this by using a gene gun to move copies of a lab-built gene into wheat cells. The gene gun fired gold particles coated with genes that cue wheat plants to manufacture more glutenins. The researchers now want to fine-tune this strategy for more precise control over wheat flour's glutenin levels. With colleagues from Australia's Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organization in Sydney, they are testing flours made from kernels harvested from these experimental plants.