White salted noodle characteristics from transgenic isolines of wheat over expressing puroindolines

The closely linked genes puroindoline a (Pina) and puroindoline b (Pinb) control most of the variation in wheat (Triticum aestivum) grain texture. Mutations in either Pina or Pinb result in hard grain with wild type forms of both genes giving soft grain. Asian noodles are prepared from both hard and soft classes of wheat. Our objective was to examine color and texture characteristics of white salted noodles processed from flours of transgenic isolines of Hi-Line hard red spring wheat over expressing Pina-D1a, Pinb-D1a or both and a control giving a range in grain texture from very soft to hard. White salted noodles were prepared and color and texture characteristics were measured. The three softer textured transgenic isolines showed greater change in L∗ with time than Hi-Line. The noodles were more adhesive (more negative value), firmer, and chewier as the grain texture became successively softer when cooked at 5 min. These texture differences were not as apparent when noodles were cooked for an optimum time. Starch pasting properties did not explain the noodle textural differences. A possible explanation for the noodle texture differences may be related to starch damage which ranged from 2.2% for HGAB to 6.7% for Hi-Line, flour particle size differences and subsequent water absorption differences among the four genotypes. Over expression of puroindolines did not enhance quality of white salted noodles when prepared under these conditions.