A novel enzymatic method discriminating wheat pre-harvest sprouting from Late Maturity alpha-amylase

The primary quality assessor of wheat grain is the Hagberg Falling Number (FN) method. This is a viscometric test surrogate for alpha-amylase activity. Despite being used for over sixty years, FN has been increasingly scrutinised due to its low throughput, poor reproducibility and inability to differentiate between the causes of low FN including Pre-harvest Sprouting (PHS) and Late Maturity alpha-Amylase (LMA). Our study describes initial efforts to analyse a specific wheat flour set tailored for the identification of enzymatic candidates that would allow discrimination between PHS and LMA affected grains. Using the sensitive enzyme-coupled assay substrate RAMGR3, results suggest that alpha-glucosidase (exo-alpha-glucosidase) is a potential enzyme marker candidate to specifically detect sprouted but not LMA-affected grain.

Automated summary

The Hagberg Falling Number (FN) method is commonly used to assess the quality of wheat grain, but it has limitations in terms of throughput, reproducibility, and differentiation between different causes of low FN. This study explores a specific wheat flour set to identify enzymatic candidates that can distinguish between Pre-harvest Sprouting (PHS) and Late Maturity alpha-Amylase (LMA) affected grains, and alpha-glucosidase is found to be a potential enzyme marker for specifically detecting sprouted grains.