Chemometric Analysis of High Molecular Mass Glutenin Subunits and Image Data of Bread Crumb Structure from Croatian Wheat Cultivars

The aim of this work is to investigate functional relationships among wheat properties, high molecular mass (weight) (HMW) glutenin subunits and bread quality produced from eleven Croatian wheat cultivars by chemometric analysis. HMW glutenin subunits were fractionated by sodium dodecylsulfate polyacrylamid gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and subsequently analysed by scanning densitometry in order to quantify HMW glutenin fractions. Wheat properties are characterised by four variables: protein content, sedimentation value, wet gluten and gluten index. Bread quality is assessed by the standard measurement of loaf volume, and visual quality of bread slice is quantified by 8 parameters by the use of computer image analysis. The data matrix with 21 columns (measured variables) and 11 rows (cultivars) is analysed for determination of number of latent variables. It was found that the first two latent variables account for 92, 85 and 87 % of variance of wheat quality properties, HMW glutenin fractions, and the bread quality parameters, respectively. Classification and functional relationships are discussed from the case data (cultivars) and variable projections to the planes of the first two latent variables. Between Glu-D1y proportion and the bread quality parameters (standard parameter loaf volume and bread crumb cell area fraction determined by image analysis) the strongest positive correlations are found r = 0.651 and r = 0.885, respectively. Between Glu-B1x proportion and the bread quality parameters the strongest negative correlations are found r =-0.535 and r = –0.841, respectively. The results are discussed in view of possible development of new and improvement of existing wheat cultivars and optimisation of bread production.