Effect of Biofertilizer in Organic and Conventional Systems on Growth, Yield and Baking Quality of Hard Red Winter Wheat

A two-year study (harvest years 2019 and 2020) was conducted to investigate the effect of a commercially available biofertilizer, in combination with variable nitrogen (N) rate, on bread baking quality and agronomic traits in hard winter wheat grown in conventional (CONV) and organic (ORG) farming systems in Kentucky, USA. The hard red winter wheat cultivar ‘Vision 45’ was used with three N rates (44, 89.6 and 134.5 kg/ha as Low, Med and High, respectively) and three biofertilizer spray regimes (no spray, one spray and two sprays). All traits measured were significantly affected by the agricultural production system (CONV or ORG) and N rate, although trends in their interactions were inconsistent between years. In Y2, yield was greatest in treatments with high N rates and in the ORG system. Biofertilizer treatments had a negative to neutral effect on grain yield. Baking quality traits such as protein content, lactic acid solvent retention capacity and sedimentation value (SV) were consistently greater in the CONV system and increased with the higher N application rates. Similarly, biofertilizer application had no effect on predictive baking quality traits, except for SV in year 1 of the study, where it increased with two sprays. Loaf volume was consistently greater from wheat grown in CONV treatments. From these results, we conclude that further research is warranted to evaluate the potential for biofertilizers to enhance N uptake and affect bread baking quality or other end-use traits. Additional research may be especially useful in organic production systems where biologically based N fertilizers are utilized, and treatments were not negatively affected by biofertilizer applications. Such strategies may be needed to increase protein quantity and gluten quality to optimize winter wheat production for bread baking qualities in the southeastern USA.

A Multi-Mode Reasoning For Predicting Tobacco Baking Quality

In order to reduce the number of defective products caused by the unreasonable baking time during the tobacco production process, this paper proposes a method for establishing a multi-model reasoning tobacco baking quality prediction model. Conduct data mining and analysis on the data of various indicators of the original tobacco, and screen out the data that have an impact on the quality of tobacco baking. In order to reduce the complexity of the model and eliminate the influence between different dimensions, the data are carried out and standardized processing. Next, the normalized data is explored for the multi-input and multi-output mapping relationship. Finally, a mapping matrix is given for the multi-input and multi-output mapping relationship so as to establish a tobacco baking quality prediction model. The test results show that the predicted value of this model is basically the actual value, and the prediction accuracy rate is more than 90%. It has a high prediction accuracy rate. The cured tobacco leaves are basically the same as the actual cured yellow expected value. This model provides a practical guide method for tobacco baking, which has certain practical value in actual tobacco baking.

Impact of Nitrogen Rate in Conventional and Organic Production Systems on Yield and Bread Baking Quality of Soft Red Winter Wheat

Soft red winter wheat (SRW) is characterized by high yield and relatively low protein content. In Kentucky, there is growing demand from local artisan bread bakers for regionally produced flour, requiring production of grain with increased protein content and/or strength. The objective of this two-year field experiment was to evaluate the effect of nitrogen (N) management on five cultivars of winter wheat on yield and bread baking quality traits of modern and landrace SRW cultivars (Triticum aestivum L.). All five cultivars were evaluated using two N application rates in conventional and organic production systems. All traits measured were significantly affected by the agricultural production system and N rate, although plant height and other quality traits varied by study year. Significantly higher yields were achieved in the conventional system at a relatively low N rate (67.2 kg ha−1) in both study years (2017–2019) (p < 0.01). Results were variable by cultivar and a locally bred, high-yielding cultivar (Pembroke 2014) had the highest lactic acid solvent retention capacity score and thousand kernel weight of the cultivars evaluated. In addition, a landrace cultivar (Purple Straw) had the highest grain N and plant height. A French soft wheat, Soissons, had the highest sedimentation value and Pembroke 2016 achieved the highest yield. The findings from this study suggest the possibility of attaining a desirable grain with quality traits of SRW wheat that meets the needs of local bread wheat production in Kentucky through improving the optimization of cultivar selection, N management and specific considerations for conventional and organic systems.

Characterization of 150 Wheat Cultivars by LC-MS-Based Label-Free Quantitative Proteomics Unravels Possibilities to Design Wheat Better for Baking Quality and Human Health

Wheat (Triticum aestivum ssp. aestivum) contributes to 20% of the human protein supply, delivers essential amino acids and is of fundamental importance for bread and pasta quality. Wheat proteins are also involved in adverse human reactions like celiac disease (CD), wheat allergy (WA) and non-celiac wheat sensitivity (NCWS). Using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS)-based label-free quantitative (LFQ) proteomics of aqueous flour extracts, we determined 756 proteins across 150 wheat cultivars grown in three environments. However, only 303 proteins were stably expressed across all environments in at least one cultivar and only 89 proteins thereof across all 150 cultivars. This underlines the large influence of environmental conditions on the expression of many proteins. Wheat cultivars varied largely in their protein profile, shown by high coefficients of variation across different cultivars. Heritability (h2) ranged from 0–1, with 114 proteins having h² > 0.6, including important proteins for baking quality and human health. The expression of these 114 proteins should be amenable to targeted manipulation across the wheat supply chain by varietal choice and breeding for designing healthier wheat with better quality. Further technical development is urgently required to assign functions to identifiable proteins labeled yet uncharacterized in databases and speeding up detection methods to routinely use proteomics in wheat supply chains.

Evaluating milling and baking quality associated with a Fusarium head blight resistance-enhancing genome deletion in wheat

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) breeding involves improvement of a wide range of traits. However, selection for these traits is only acceptable if the end use quality of the wheat is not compromised. In hard red spring wheat, the predominant end use of flour is bread. In this study, milling and baking quality characteristics were compared in the hard red spring wheat ‘Apogee’ and a near-isogenic line of Apogee (‘A30’) that contains a spontaneous segmental deletion of the long arm of chromosome arm 3DL that is associated with enhanced resistance to Fusarium head blight caused by the fungal pathogen Fusarium graminearum (Schwabe). Apogee and A30 were grown together in replicated greenhouse experiments, and the resultant grain was used to compare a diverse spectrum of grain characteristics and milling and baking properties of the grain in the two wheat genotypes. The major difference detected was a significant increase in protein content in A30, which had nearly 21% more flour protein than Apogee. This difference did not affect any of the flour properties or baking characteristics evaluated, suggesting that the increased protein concentrations in A30 are not associated with the principal seed storage properties associated with baking quality. These results indicate that despite the size of the deletion in A30, no key genes associated with end use quality are located on that chromosome segment. The deletion may therefore find use in efforts to enhance Fusarium head blight in hard red spring wheat.