Wheat Gluten and its Viscoelastic Properties

Wheat gluten is a storage protein in wheat flour. There is an interest in wheat gluten because it has been related to bread making quality, specifically because of its unique viscoelastic properties. It is also environmentally friendly, renewable and it is a biodegradable material. The main focus of the research is to determine the component(s) that cause viscoelasticity in wheat gluten. To determine the reason for elasticity a Molecular Force Probe (MFP) is needed to find the force of the molecules. Different PH buffers will be used on the gluten sample to observe whether there are any behavior changes. If differences are observed than that may mean that the side chains of the amino acids and their charges are important for elasticity. Side chains have different charges and the different PH buffers may effect the charge of these side chains. After collecting pulls with the MFP the data is then fit to three models. The most common model used to analyze data from protein pulling is the worm-like chain model. This model does not fit our data. The second is the Hooke model which represents a directly proportional increase between force and distance pulled. The last is the Exponential model which, so far, best describes the data that has been gathered.