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2S albumins are important peanut allergens. Within this protein family, Ara h 2 and Ara h 6 have been described in detail, but Ara h 7 has received little attention. We now describe the first purification of Ara h 7 and its characterization. Two Ara h 7 isoforms were purified from peanuts. Mass spectrometry revealed that both the isoforms have a post-translation cleavage, a hydroxyproline modification near the N-terminus, and four disulfide bonds. The secondary structure of both Ara h 7 isoforms is highly comparable to those of Ara h 2 and Ara h 6. Both Ara h 7 isoforms bind IgE, and Ara h 7 is capable of inhibiting the binding between Ara h 2 and IgE, suggesting at least partially cross-reactive IgE epitopes. Ara h 7 was found in all main market types of peanut, at comparable levels. This suggests that Ara h 7 is a relevant allergen from the peanut 2S albumin protein family.

To evaluate the importance of the water holding capacity for the elastically stored energy of protein gels, a range of gels were created from proteins from different origin (plant: pea and soy proteins, and animal: whey, blood plasma, egg white proteins, and ovalbumin) varying in network morphology set by the protein concentration, pH, ionic strength, or the presence of specific ions. The results showed that the observed positive and linear relation between water holding (WH) and elastically stored energy (RE) is generic for globular protein gels studied. The slopes of this relation are comparable for all globular protein gels (except for soy protein gels) whereas the intercept is close to 0 for most of the systems except for ovalbumin and egg white gels. The slope and intercept obtained allows one to predict the impact of tuning WH, by gel morphology or network stiffness, on the mechanical deformation of the protein-based gel. Addition of charged polysaccharides to a protein system leads to a deviation from the linear relation between WH and RE and this deviation coincides with a change in phase behavior.

The 2S albumin Ara h 6 is one of the most important peanut allergens. A post-translationally cleaved Ara h 6 (pAra h 6) was purified from Virginia type peanuts, and the cleavage site was mapped using high-resolution mass spectrometry. Compared to intact Ara h 6, pAra h 6 lacks a 5-amino acid stretch, resembling amino acids 43-47 (UniProt accession number Q647G9) in the nonstructured loop. Consequently, pAra h 6 consists of two chains: an N-terminal chain of approximately 5 kDa and a C-terminal chain of approximately 9 kDa, held together by disulfide bonds. Intermediate post-translationally cleaved products, in which this stretch is cleaved yet still attached to one of the subunits, are also present. The secondary structure and immunoglobulin E (IgE) binding of pAra h 6 resembles that of intact Ara h 6, indicating that the loss of the nonstructured loop is not critical for maintaining the protein structure. Commercially available monoclonal and polyclonal immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies directed to Ara h 6 react with both intact Ara h 6 and pAra h 6, suggesting that the involved epitopes are not located in the area that is post-translationally cleaved. No differences between intact Ara h 6 and pAra h 6 in terms of IgE binding were found, suggesting that the area that is post-translationally cleaved is not involved in IgE epitopes either. For all main cultivars Runner, Virginia, Valencia, and Spanish, intact Ara h 6 and pAra h 6 occur in peanut at similar levels, indicating that pAra h 6 is a consistent and important contributor to the allergenic potency of peanut. © Copyright 2018 American Chemical Society.

This study aims to investigate the role of the ligation of steric moieties on the formation of junction zones during network formation of gelatin gels. The molecular conformational propensities, heat stability and mechanical properties of gradually chemically modified pork skin gelatin have been evaluated. To this end, glucose moieties are ligated to lysine residues on the protein using the Maillard reaction. It is shown that ligation of small sugar moieties only marginally impairs with triple helix formation and does not interfere with the mechanism of network formation. The Young's modulus (gel stiffness) and the fracture properties decrease with increasing degree of modification, but not the ability to reversibly store energy in the network. It is suggested that Maillardation affects the strand–strand interaction energy, but not necessarily the number of junction zones. A retained recoverable energy while the fracture properties can be affected allows industry to tailor food products in terms of their expected sensory performance.

This work evaluates the impact of heat processing of parvalbumin, a major fish allergen, on the consequences for quantitative analysis of this protein embedded in different matrices during heating (either isolated, in an aqueous extract, or in whole fillets) to assess potential health risks. It is shown that oligomerization of parvalbumin does occur, but only upon heat treatment above 80 °C. This coincides with the ability of the isolated protein to refold up to this temperature in a fully reversible way, as demonstrated by circular dichroism analysis. In autoclaved samples a disintegration of the protein structure is observed. The situation becomes different when parvalbumin is embedded in a matrix with other constituents, as in fish extracts or whole fillets. The electrophoretic analysis of parvalbumin (SDS-PAGE and immunoblotting) is largely determined by complexation with other proteins resulting in insoluble materials caused by the partial unfolding of the parvalbumin at elevated temperatures. This effect is more strongly observed for cod fish extract, compared to whole cod fillets, as in the latter situation the integrity of the tissue hampers this interprotein complexation. Moreover, it is shown by ELISA analysis of heat-treated samples that using blotting procedures where disintegration of complexes may be promoted, restoring some of the IgG-binding propensity, may provide false outcomes. It was concluded that antibody binding to parvalbumin is dominated by the potential to form heat-induced complexes with other proteins. The possibly less-soluble or extractable character of these complexes may provide confusing information regarding potential health risks of fish and fish protein-containing food composites when such heat-treated samples are analyzed by immunochemical assays.

To optimize food products to better accommodate food product acceptance by end consumers and health or ecological regulations, it is necessary to gain a reliable view of the process that occurs during mastication of products in the oral cavity. The physical description of the mechanical responses due to oral processing is required for a more effective prediction in product (re)formulation. The aim of this work is to derive such an adequate and relevant methodology. For this purpose a tribological and rheological study of polysaccharide solutions was employed using a set of different rubbers that mimic different soft (oral) surfaces and to relate these measurements to material surface properties, as roughness, hydrophobicity and elasticity. The polysaccharides chosen, locust bean gum, pectin and xanthan, represent important components in food products. It is shown that the nature (hardness or roughness) of a surface under good lubrication conditions is not that important. Therefore, in developing new food products it may be of prime importance to control the lubrication properties rather than focus on adaptation to oral surface characteristics, like the consequences of human aging. Xanthan is more effective as lubricant than the negatively charged pectin, while locust bean gum is the worst lubricant that was tested. No clear relation with the apparent contact angle could be made between friction and the aqueous solutions tested. The presence of hard particles on friction is predominantly observed at relatively low entrainment speed (below about 50 mm/s) and is most explicitly detectable when lubrication is poor (as for locust bean gum). The MCC particles used in this study may not fit in the surface asperities and thereby enhance surface roughness, which results in extended boundary regime of the Stribeck-curve. Tribology is shown to be useful to detect particles dispersed in a solution, but the better the lubricant the more difficult the detection of such particles will be. Alternatively, this work shows that food products characterized by low friction coefficient can be mixed with elongated particles without large influence on their lubrication properties. This insight might provide openings in reformulation-strategies not only in food but also in pharmacy applications.

Aqueous lubrication is currently at the forefront of tribological research due to the desire to learn and potentially mimic how nature lubricates biotribological contacts. We focus here on understanding the lubrication properties of naturally occurring polysaccharides in aqueous solution using a combination of tribology, adsorption, and rheology. The polysaccharides include pectin, xanthan gum, gellan, and locus bean gum that are all widely used in food and nonfood applications. They form rheologically complex fluids in aqueous solution that are both shear thinning and elastic, and their normal stress differences at high shear rates are found to be characteristic of semiflexible/rigid molecules. Lubrication is studied using a ball-on-disk tribometer with hydrophobic elastomer surfaces, mimicking biotribological contacts, and the friction coefficient is measured as a function of speed across the boundary, mixed, and hydrodynamic lubrication regimes. The hydrodynamic regime, where the friction coefficient increases with increasing lubricant entrainment speed, is found to depend on the viscosity of the polysaccharide solutions at shear rates of around 10(4) s(-1). The boundary regime, which occurs at the lowest entrainment speeds, depends on the adsorption of polymer to the substrate. In this regime, the friction coefficient for a rough substrate (400 nm rms roughness) is dependent on the dry mass of polymer adsorbed to the surface (obtained from surface plasmon resonance), while for a smooth substrate (10 nm rms roughness) the friction coefficient is strongly dependent on the hydrated wet mass of adsorbed polymer (obtained from quartz crystal microbalance, QCM-D). The mixed regime is dependent on both the adsorbed film properties and lubricant's viscosity at high shear rates. In addition, the entrainment speed where the friction coefficient is a minimum, which corresponds to the transition between the hydrodynamic and mixed regime, correlates linearly with the ratio of the wet mass and viscosity at ∼10(4) s(-1) for the smooth surface. These findings are independent of the different polysaccharides used in the study and their different viscoelastic flow properties.

This work underlines that the role of water, its flow properties and its expulsion from the spatial network during oral processing, cannot be neglected in understanding the relation between gelled food structures and its sensory perception. It is shown that the properties of the included water phase of semi-solids are important as this phase can boost the water content in the oral cavity, and thereby increase taste sensations like sweetness. Moreover, the included water phase also plays a crucial role in how the energy exerted onto the gel during palating is used for either fracture, stored or dissipated in or by the network. To demonstrate this, a series of mixed whey protein/polysaccharide cold-set gels have prepared that were studied for a number of rheological and sensorial properties. Also, information on the expulsed serum volume during uniaxial compression and the breakdown pattern of these gels in the oral cavity was determined. It is shown that expulsion of serum from a gel during oral processing can be substantial and set by the morphology of the formed gel and the stiffness of the matrix. This expulsed serum volume is directly proportional to taste response. Moreover, it is found that both the viscous and elastic flow of serum through the gel upon deformation contribute to the perceived crumbliness of gels by lowering the recoverable energy. The elastic contribution of polysaccharides in the serum impairs with the energy available for fracture during oral processing, thereby affecting the sensory spreadability of the product.

The possibility of modulating the mesoscopic properties of food colloidal systems by the dielectric constant is studied by determining the impact of small amounts of ethanol (10%) on the adsorption of egg white ovalbumin onto the air-water interface in the absence and presence of pectin. The adsorption kinetics was monitored using tensiometry. The addition of ethanol resulted in considerably slower adsorption of the protein onto the interface, and this effect was enhanced when the protein was in complex with the pectin. Time-resolved fluorescence measurements demonstrated that in the case of noncomplexed ovalbumin the addition of ethanol resulted in a more condensed protein surface layer where ovalbumin adopted a preferred orientation at the interface. In contrast, the effect of ethanol on the ovalbumin-pectin complex suggested a pronounced multipoint electrostatic interaction between protein and polyelectrolyte and the formation of a more rigid spatial arrangement within the complex, thereby leading to suppressed protein-protein interactions. From this work it is concluded that by the enhanced binding affinity between ovalbumin and pectin a strong effect on the adsorption properties of the protein can be accomplished. This work does therefore illustrate how solvent quality can be exploited effectively to enhance or suppress protein functional behavior in complex applications containing air-water interfaces. © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Chemicals / CAS: alcohol, 64-17-5; egg white, 9006-50-2; ovalbumin, 77466-29-6; pectin, 9000-69-5; urea, 57-13-6; water, 7732-18-5; Ethanol, 64-17-5; Ovalbumin, 9006-59-1; pectin, 9000-69-5; Pectins; Solutions; Water, 7732-18-5

Based on earlier reported surface rheological behaviour two factors appeared to be important for the functional behaviour of mixed protein/polysaccharide adsorbed layers at air/water interfaces: (1) protein/polysaccharide mixing ratio and (2) formation history of the layers. In this study complexes of β-lactoglobulin (positively charged at pH 4.5) and low methoxyl pectin (negatively charged) were formed at two mixing ratios, resulting in negatively charged and nearly neutral complexes. Neutron reflection showed that adsorption of negative complexes leads to more diffuse layers at the air/water interface than adsorption of neutral complexes. Besides (simultaneous) adsorption of protein/polysaccharide complexes, a mixed layer can also be formed by adsorption of (protein/)polysaccharide (complexes) to a pre-formed protein layer (sequential adsorption). Despite similar bulk concentrations, adsorbed layer density profiles of simultaneously and sequentially formed layers were persistently different, as illustrated by neutron reflection analysis. Time resolved fluorescence anisotropy showed that the mobility of protein molecules at an air/water interface is hampered by the presence of pectin. This hampered mobility of protein through a complex layer could account for differences observed in density profiles of simultaneously and sequentially formed layers. These insights substantiated the previously proposed organisations of the different adsorbed layers based on surface rheological data. © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Chemicals / CAS: beta lactoglobulin, 9045-23-2; Lactoglobulins; Membranes, Artificial; pectin, 9000-69-5; Pectins; Water, 7732-18-5

Conglutins represent the major peanut allergens and are renowned for their resistance to gastrointestinal digestion. Our aim was to characterize the digestion-resistant peptides (DRPs) of conglutins by biochemical and biophysical methods followed by a molecular dynamics simulation in order to better understand the molecular basis of food protein allergenicity. We have mapped proteolysis sites at the N- and C-termini and at a limited internal segment, while other potential proteolysis sites remained unaffected. Molecular dynamics simulation showed that proteolysis only occurred in the vibrant regions of the proteins. DRPs appeared to be conformationally stable as intact conglutins. Also, the overall secondary structure and IgE-binding potency of DRPs was comparable to that of intact conglutins. The stability of conglutins toward gastro-intestinal digestion, combined with the conformational stability of the resulting DRPs provide conditions for optimal exposure to the intestinal immune system, providing an explanation for the extraordinary allergenicity of peanut conglutins. Supplementary material: [http://cherry.chem.bg.ac.rs/handle/123456789/3415]

The aim of this study was to relate the activation energy of the disruption of ovalbumin networks to elastically stored energy (i.e. recoverable energy, RE) obtained from mechanical deformation tests. To this end, heat-set ovalbumin gels were prepared at a fixed volume fraction and pH, but varying incubation temperatures. The activation energy required to disrupt the gels was derived from the Arrhenius equation. Increasing incubation temperature from 65 to 95 °C during gel formation resulted in a gradual increase in the activation energy up to a factor of ∼8. Gels obtained at or just below the protein denaturation temperature of around 75 °C had significantly lower recoverable energy (RE). These latter gels also had lower fracture stress and strain. At incubation temperatures above 70 °C RE was constant around 75%, although a steady increase in activation energy was observed. This demonstrates that storing energy in a protein network is not directly related to the interactions that make up the network. A combination of electron microscopy, water holding, and stress relaxation experiments were performed to study the different energy dissipation modes. It was shown that different dissipation modes for various gels were comparable, and this explains why the RE was similar, with the exception of gels prepared at lower incubation temperatures where (micro) fracture events could have occurred that lowered the RE. These results suggest that RE is not a network characteristic related to microstructural or smaller length scale interactions, but the result of various material-related energy dissipation mechanisms.

The addition of polysaccharides to proteins during gel formation can alter the mechanical and textural properties of the resultant gels. However, the effect of addition of different polymers on mechanical properties of whey protein (WP) gels including their ability to elastically store energy, often measured in terms of the recoverable energy (RE), or dissipate energy, has not been fully reported. In this paper heat-induced WP gels containing high (HM) or low (LM) methylated negatively charged pectin or the neutral pullulan were prepared to study how the addition of polysaccharides to WP affects the mechanical properties of the formed gels. These gels were subjected to uniaxial compression and mechanical properties, including RE, were evaluated. The addition of pullulan to WP did not enhance the RE, whereas an increase in LM pectin resulted in higher RE. For gels containing HM pectin, the presence of the polymer induced an initial decrease of the RE. Nevertheless, RE increased with further increase in pectin concentration. These findings indicate that the addition of polysaccharides to whey proteins during gel formation results in changes in the RE but to different extent for different polymers. The results from this study suggest that the addition of polysaccharides to WP can be used as a tool to modulate the ability of whey protein gels to elastically store energy upon mechanical deformation.

A large number of proteins are glycosylated, either in vivo or as a result of industrial processing. Even though the effect of glycosylation on the aggregation of proteins has been studied extensively in the past, some reports show that the aggregation process is accelerated, whereas others found that the process is inhibited by glycosylation. This paper investigates the reasons behind these controversial results as well as the potential mechanism of the effect of glucosylation on aggregation using bovine -lactoglobulin as a model. Glucosylation was found to inhibit denaturant-induced aggregation, whereas heat-induced aggregation was accelerated. It was also found that the kinetic partitioning from an unfolded state was driven toward refolding for glucosylated protein, whereas aggregation was the preferred route for the nonglucosylated protein. Keywords: Aggregation; glucosylation; -lactoglobulin; hydrophobicity; electrostatic repulsion; unfolding/refolding

To better tailor gelatins for textural characteristics in (food) gels, their interactions are destabilized by introduction of electrostatic repulsions and creation of affinity sites for calcium to “lock” intermolecular interactions. For that purpose gelatins with various degrees of succinylation are obtained. Extensive succinylation hampers helix formation and gel strength is slightly reduced. At high degrees of succinylation the helix propensity, gelling/melting temperatures, concomitant transition enthalpy, and gel strength become calcium-sensitive, and relatively low calcium concentrations largely restore these properties. Although succinylation has a major impact on the brittleness of the gels formed and the addition of calcium makes the material less brittle compared to nonmodified gelatin, the modification has no impact on the energy balance in the gel, where all energy applied is elastically stored in the material. This is explained by the unaffected stress relaxation by the network and high water-holding capacity related to the small mesh sizes in the gels.

Unfolding of proteins has often been mentioned as an important factor during the adsorption process at air-water interfaces and in the increase of surface pressure at later stages of the adsorption process. This work focuses on the question whether the folding state of the adsorbed protein depends on the rate of adsorption to the interface, which can be controlled by bulk concentration. Therefore, the adsorption of proteins with varying structural stabilities at several protein concentrations was studied using ellipsometry and surface tensiometry. For β-lactoglobulin the adsorbed amount (Γ) needed to reach a certain surface pressure (Π) decreased with decreasing bulk concentration. Ovalbumin showed no such dependence. To verify whether this difference in behavior is caused by the difference in structural stability, similar experiments were performed with cytochrome c and a destabilized variant of this protein. Both proteins showed identical Π - Γ, and no dependence on bulk concentration. From this work it was concluded that unfolding will only take place if the kinetics of adsorption is similar or slower than the kinetics of unfolding. The latter depends on the activation energy of unfolding (which is in the order of 100-300 kJ/mol), rather than the free energy of unfolding (typically 10-50 kJ/mol). © 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

There is an ongoing debate about whether a protein surface film at an air-water interface can be regarded as a gelled layer. There is literature reporting that such films show macroscopic fracture behavior and a rheology comparable to three-dimensional protein bulk-networks. If this is the case, a complete description of the formation of adsorbed layers should include a transition from single, freely moving proteins to a gelled layer. This report presents studies using spectroscopic techniques, such as infrared, fluorescence and neutron spectroscopy, or ellipsometry, to derive molecular insight in situ to substantiate the intermolecular networking in surface films of chicken egg ovalbumin. It is concluded that protein films, generated by equilibrium adsorption from the bulk, behave as a densely packed colloidal repulsive particle system, where the proteins still have a significant rotational mobility, have a predominantly retained globular fold, and show distinct (lateral) diffusion. Applied stresses on the surface film (by compressions of the interface) may result in protein denaturation and aggregation. This process renders a surface film from a colloidal particle into that of a gelled system. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Chemical glycosylation of proteins occurs in vivo spontaneously, especially under stress conditions, and has been linked in a number of cases to diseases related to protein denaturation and aggregation. It is the aim of this work to study the origin of the change in thermodynamic properties due to glucosylation of the folded β-lactoglobulin A. Under mild conditions Maillard products can be formed by reaction of e-amino groups of lysines with the reducing group of, in this case, glucose. The formed conjugates described here have an average degree of glycosylation of 82%. No impact of the glucosylation on the protein structure is detected, except that the Stokes radius was increased by ∼3%. Although at ambient temperatures the change in Gibbs energy of unfolding is reduced by 20%, the denaturation temperature is increased by 5°C. Using a combination of circular dichroism, fluorescence, and calorimetric approaches, it is shown that the change in heat capacity upon denaturation is reduced by 60% due to the glucosylation. Since in the denatured state the Stokes radius of the protein is not significantly smaller for the glucosylated protein, it is suggested that the nonpolar residues associate to the covalently linked sugar moiety in the unfolded state, thereby preventing their solvent exposure. In this way coupling of small reducing sugar moieties to solvent exposed groups of proteins offers an efficient and unique tool to deal with protein stability issues, relevant not only in nature but also for technological applications. Copyright © 2005 The Protein Society.

Processing of ovalbumin may result in proteins that differ more than 23°C in denaturation temperature while the structural fold is not significantly affected. This is achieved by 1) conversion of positive residues into negative ones (succinylation); 2) elimination of negative charges (methylation); 3) reducing the proteins hydrophobic exposure (glycosylation); 4) increasing the hydrophobic exposure (lipophilization); or by 5) processing under alkaline conditions and elevated temperature (Sovalbumin). The effect on the structural fold was investigated using a variety of biochemical and spectroscopic tools. The consequences of the modification on the thermodynamics of the protein was studied using differential scanning calorimetry and by monitoring the tryptophan fluorescence or ellipticity at 222 nm of protein samples dissolved in different concentrations of guanidine-HCl. The impact of the modification on the denaturation temperature scales for all types of modifications with a free energy change of about 1 kJ per mol ovalbumin per Kelvin (or 0.0026 kJ per mol residue per K). The nature of the covalently coupled moiety determines the impact of the modification on the protein thermodynamics. It is suggested that especially for lipophilized protein the water-binding properties are substantially lowered. Processing of globular proteins in a controlled manner offers great opportunities to control a desired functionality, for example, as texturizer in food or medical applications. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals. Chemicals/CAS: guanidine, 113-00-8, 25215-10-5, 50-01-1; ovalbumin, 77466-29-6; tryptophan, 6912-86-3, 73-22-3; Ovalbumin, 9006-59-1

Mechanical behavior of a protein gel plays a large role in sensory properties. Despite the large amount of research on caseins, the origin of the mechanical behavior is not well understood yet. To determine the length scales that are relevant for the mechanical behavior of casein gels, casein micelles were crosslinked with increasing amount of transglutaminase followed by acidification to form gels. The gel heterogeneity, observed with confocal microscopy, electron microscopy and light scattering showed a gradual decrease on a micrometer length scale with increasing crosslinking. Such gradual change as a function of crosslinking was also observed in the elastic modulus and the Young’s modulus of the gels. Furthermore, particle size both prior to gelation and in the gel decreased with increasing crosslinking. Casein micelle stiffness (determined by atomic force microscopy) showed a maximum and the amount of water entrapped by the gel particles and their aggregates in the gel (determined by neutron scattering) showed a minimum with increasing crosslinking. These extrema coincides with the extrema observed in kinetics of gel formation and in gel breakdown properties. It was concluded that the elasticity of the gel originates on the length scale of the casein micelle (a few hundred nanometer), while fracture properties are determined at a smaller length scale, by the structure within the casein micelle.

The recoverable energy (RE), defined as the ratio of the work exerted on a test specimen during compression and recovered upon subsequent decompression, has been shown to correlate to sensory profiling of protein-based food products. Understanding the mechanism determining the time-dependency of RE is primordial. This work aims to identify the protein-specific impact on the recoverable energy by stress dissipation via relaxation of (micro)structural rearrangements within protein gels. To this end, caseinate and gelatin gels are studied for their response to time-dependent mechanical deformation as they are known to develop structurally distinct network morphologies. This work shows that in gelatin gels no significant stress relaxation occurs on the seconds timescale, and consequently no time-dependency of the amount of energy stored in this material is observed. In caseinate gels, however, the energy dissipation via relaxation processes does contribute significantly to the time-dependency of reversible stored energy in the network. This can explain the obtained RE as a function of applied deformation at slow deformation rates. At faster deformation, an additional contribution to the dissipated energy is apparent, that increases with the deformation rate, which might point to the role of energy dissipation related to friction of the serum entrapped by the protein-network. This work shows that engineering strategies focused on controlling viscous flow in protein gels could be more effective to dictate the ability to elastically store energy in protein gels than routes that direct protein-specific aggregation and/or network-assembly.

The objective of this study was to analyze quantitatively the network structure that underlines the transitioning in the mechanical responses of heat-induced pea protein gels. To achieve this, gels were prepared from pea proteins at varying pHs from 3.0 to 4.2 at a fixed 100 mg/mL protein concentration. Gels were also prepared by varying the protein concentration from 100 to 150 mg/mL at a fixed pH 3.0. Mechanical deformation properties of the gels were determined. An increase in protein concentration at a fixed pH resulted in an increase in fracture stress and Young's modulus. Variation of the pH at a fixed protein concentration resulted in transitioning in mechanical responses such as fracture stress, fracture strain, and the recoverable energy. The network structures were visualized by the use of confocal laser scanning and scanning electron microscopy, and the characteristic length scales of these structures were quantitatively analyzed in terms of the pair correlation function. Variation of the protein concentration at a fixed pH did not significantly alter the microstructure of the gels, whereas variation of the pH at a fixed protein concentration resulted in significant changes in the gel structure. Structural transitioning was shown to occur around pH 3.7. The findings from this study show transitioning in rheological responses of pea protein gels occur as a result of structural changes. The results from this study offer opportunities to broaden the application of pea proteins in food products, as products with desirable rheological (textural) and structural properties can be designed from pea proteins.

In this report we describe the first attempts to record external reflection circular dichroism (ERCD) spectra of beta-lactoglobulin solutions. It is shown that the accumulated proteins at and near the air-water interface can be detected using ERCD and that the signals obtained contain information on the conformational properties and concentration of the proteins residing at the interface. The local protein concentration and its conformation are in full agreement with previous observations using external reflection infrared spectroscopy. The ERCD signals are dominated by linear dichroism (LD) due to non-ideal behavior of the instrumental optics, but can be explained for using the theoretical description of chiral reflection. This allows the analysis of ERCD spectra of protein solutions. The measured ERCD signals are described accurately in the region between 190 and 220 nm, but poor resemblance is obtained at higher wavelengths. We are however confident that improvement of experimental conditions and theoretical description will allow that in the near future, external reflection circular dichroism (CD) can be a valuable tool that complements the application of external reflection infrared spectroscopy to study interfacial systems.

Detailed insight can be obtained from proteins at and near the air-water interface using external reflection IR and circular dichroism techniques. Besides information on local protein concentrations and surface layer thickness, it is shown that beta-lactoglobulin displays a limited unfolding at the interface. The conformational change is comparable to that observed upon heat-induced aggregation of the protein and can be understood in view of the high surface concentration of the protein (approximately 40% volume fraction). The layer thickness and the conformational properties of the protein do not depend on the bulk concentration. After adsorption of beta-lactoglobulin to a preformed lipid monomolecular layer a similar conformational change is induced, suggesting that the folding properties of the protein itself determine the extent of conformational changes at the interfaces.

The effects of pH and various additives on the precipitation and (re)solubility at pH 7 of potato proteins from industrial potato fruit juice (PFJ) were studied. The use of various strong and weak acids did not result in differences in protein precipitation, which on average occurred to a maximum of 60% of total protein at pH 3. Weak acids did, however, result in precipitates with a higher resolubility at pH 7 compared with strong acids. At pH 5, addition of FeCl3 or ZnCl2 increased both precipitation and resolubility compared with the situation without additives. The largest increases in both precipitation and resolubility were achieved using organic solvents at pH 5 as an additive, resulting in a maximum precipitation and maximum resolubility at pH 7 of 91 and 83% of total protein respectively. The results described in this study lead to the hypothesis that precipitation and resolubilisation of potato proteins from PFJ are not determined by their isoelectric pH but by their interactions with low-molecular-weight components. © 2001 Society of Chemical Industry.

Divalent calcium ions have been suggested to be involved in intermolecular protein-Ca2+-protein cross-linking, intramolecular electrostatic shielding, or ion-induced protein conformational changes as a trigger for protein aggregation at elevated temperatures. To address the first two phenomena in the case of beta-lactoglobulin, a combination of chemical protein modification, calcium-binding, and aggregation studies was used, while the structural integrity of the modified proteins was maintained. Although increasing the number of carboxylates on the protein by succinylation results in improved calcium-binding, calcium appears to be less effective in inducing protein aggregation. In fact, the larger the number of carboxylates, the higher the concentration of calcium that is required to trigger the aggregation. Lowering the number of negative charges on the protein surface via methylation of carboxylates reduces calcium-binding properties, but calcium-induced aggregation at low concentration is improved. Monovalent sodium ions cannot take over the specific role of calcium. The relation between net surface charge and number of calcium ions bound required to trigger the aggregation suggests that calcium needs to bind site specific to carboxylates with a threshold affinity. Subsequent site-specific screening of surface charges results in protein aggregation, driven by the partial unfolding of the protein at elevated temperatures, which is then facilitated by the absence of electrostatic repulsion.

The Maillardation of proteins has been used as a natural alternative to improve its functionality by covalent coupling of proteins with saccharides. However, the impact of Maillard reaction on the structural aspects of protein networks and, as a consequence, the mechanical breakdown properties of the gel networks has not been reported. The objective of this study was to evaluate how the attachment of linear oligo-sugar moieties onto ovalbumin affects its aggregation, network morphology, and consequently the mechanical deformation properties including the ability of the networks to elastically store energy in this material. To potentially alter the morphology of the network structure, ovalbumin was modified by conjugating some of its amino groups with fructooligosaccharide (FOS) moieties via the Maillard reaction. It was demonstrated that the attachment of FOS to ovalbumin does not affect the integrity of the secondary and tertiary structure as characterized using circular dichroism and tryptophan fluorescence. Differences in the network morphology were observed by scanning electron microscopy for FOS-modified ovalbumin variants. Upon increased modification, the microstructure of the gels had more and larger pores and had thinner strands than nonmodified variants. Evaluation of the large deformation properties of the gels demonstrated that FOS-modified gels were less strong and less brittle and showed lower stiffness than nonmodified variants. The recoverable energy (elastically stored energy) of gels reduced with an increase in the degree of modification. The results show that the attachment of FOS to ovalbumin alters the structural and mechanical (large) breakdown properties of the protein gels. The consequences of the alteration of the network structure and large deformation properties of FOS-modified ovalbumin offer opportunities to efficiently design food materials with desirable techno-functional applications.

A simple method was developed that enabled the enzymatic determination of the galactose distribution in galactomannans. endo-Mannanase of Aspergillus niger was used to degrade the galactomannan polymers and the degradation products were determined with high-performance anion-exchange chromatography. A whole range of commercial high-to-low substituted galactomannans was analyzed in this way. It was found that differences in the anion-exchange chromatograms reflected dissimilarities in the distribution of galactose and could be used directly to discern these dissimilarities. The differences among the various elution profiles were used to construct a similarity distance tree. In addition to this approach, the absolute amount of non-substituted mannose released by the enzyme was found to be a good discriminating factor. In this way, galactomannans with regular, blockwise, and randomly distributed galactose could be discerned. All guars and the highly substituted gum of Prosopis juliflora were found to have a blockwise distribution of galactose. For different batches of tara gum both random and blockwise distributions were found. Among batches of locust bean gum the greatest variation was observed: both random, blockwise, and ordered galactose distributions were present. Cassia gum was found to have a highly regular distribution of galactose.

This study describes the helix nucleation site and helix propagation of the amphiphilic helical structure of the mitochondrial presequence of rat ornithine carbamoyltransferase. We investigated this property of the 32-residue synthetic presequence using CD and 2D-HR NMR techniques by determining the structure as a function of the concentration of trifluoroethanol. It was found that the hydrophobic cluster Ile7-Leu8-Leu9 forms the helix nucleation site, expanding to include residues Asn4 to Lys16 when the concentration of trifluoroethanol is increased from 10 to 30%. At higher trifluoroethanol concentrations an increased ‘stiffening’ of the polypeptide backbone (to Arg26) is observed. In addition, by recording CD spectra at different trifluoroethanol concentrations as a function of temperature, it was found that the equilibrium constant between helix and random coil formation for this peptide exhibits a strong temperature dependence with maximum values between 20 and 30 °C. Comparison of these equilibrium constants with those of homopolymers stressed the unique character of the mitochondrial presequence. The findings are discussed in relation to the molecular recognition events at different stages of the transport process of this protein into mitochondria.

The aim of this work was to investigate the impact of mesoporous silica particles (MSPs) on the physicochemical properties of filled protein gels. We have studied the effect of the addition of different mesoporous silica particles, either bare or functionalized with amines or carboxylates, on the physical properties of gelatine gels (5% w/v). Textural properties of the filled gels were investigated by uniaxial compression, while optical properties were investigated by turbidity. The MSPs were characterized with the objective of correlating particle features with their impact on the corresponding filled-gel properties. The addition of MSPs (both with and without functionalization) increased the stiffness of the gelatine gels. Furthermore, functionalized MSPs showed a remarkable increase in the strength of the gels and a slight reduction in the brittleness of the gels, in contrast with nonfunctionalized MSPs which showed no effect on these two properties. The turbidity of the gels was also affected by the addition of all tested MSPs, showing that the particles that formed smaller aggregates resulted in a higher contribution to turbidity. MSPs are promising candidates for the development of functional food containing smart delivery systems, also being able to modulate the functionality of protein gels., We gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (projects AGL2012-39597-C02-01, AGL2012-39597-C02-02, and MAT2012-38429-C04-01) and the Generalitat Valenciana (project PROMETEO/2009/016). E.P.-E. is grateful to the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion for his grant (AP2008-00620). Saskia de Jong (NIZO food research) is acknowledged for assistance during CLSM observations and rheology interpretation.

The objective of this study was to identify which length scales set the ability to elastically store energy in pea protein network structures. Various network structures were obtained frompea proteins by varying the pH and salt conditions during gel formation. The coarseness of the network structure was visualized by the use of confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and ranked from least coarse to most coarse networks. Least coarse networks were formed at a pH away from the isoelectric point (IEP) of pea proteins, and at a low ionic strength, whereas more coarse networks were formed at pH values close to the IEP and at a high ionic strength during gel formation. Mechanical deformation properties of the gels such as elastically stored (recoverable) energy, Young's moduli (stiffness of gels), fracture stress (gel strength), and fracture strain (brittleness of the gels) were measured by the use of a texture analyzer and correlated to the coarseness of the networks structure. The influence of coarseness on the ability of the networks to elastically store energy was observed for length scales below 50 nm. The findings show that elastically stored energy of pea protein gels can be modulated via the creation of different network structures below 50 nm length scales. The results from this study contribute to a better understanding of the dimensions that set the ability to elastically storage in pea protein gels. If the ability of pea proteins to store energy can be understood, products can be better tailored for consumers.

The objective of this study was to characterize fibrillar aggregates made using pea proteins, to assemble formed fibrils into protein-based gels, and to study the rheological behavior of these gels. Micrometer-long fibrillar aggregates were observed after pea protein solutions had been heated for 20 h at pH 2.0. Following heating of pea proteins, it was observed that all of the proteins were hydrolyzed into peptides and that 50% of these peptides were assembled into fibrils. Changes on a structural level in pea proteins were studied using circular dichroism, transmission electron microscopy, and particle size analysis. During the fibril assembly process, an increase in aggregate size was observed, which coincided with an increase in thioflavin T binding, indicating the presence of β-sheet aggregates. Fibrils made using pea proteins were more branched and curly. Gel formation of preformed fibrils was induced by slow acidification from pH 7.0 to a final pH of around pH 5.0. The ability of pea protein-based fibrillar gels to fracture during an amplitude sweep was comparable to those of soy protein and whey protein-based fibrillar gels, although gels prepared from fibrils made using pea protein and soy protein were weaker than those of whey protein. The findings show that fibrils can be prepared from pea protein, which can be incorporated into protein-based fibrillar gels.

Amide hydrogen–deuterium exchange rates were recorded on thin lysozyme films by attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy as a function of the pH of the solution from which the films were prepared. We describe the appropriate spectral corrections for atmospheric water absorption and for lateral side-chain contribution in the amide I/amide II region required to correctly evaluate the exchange rate from the amide II integrated intensity decrease. We show that the pH dependence of the exchange rate in our experimental conditions (0.4 g water/g protein) parallels the solution behavior. This observation confirms that the technique can be used to monitor pH-sensitive effects and allows exchange curves to be made which include most of the protein amide protons.

Differences in molar absorptivity of the various secondary structures in the amide I region of infrared protein spectra would have a great impact on the interpretation of the data published thus far on protein films studied by attenuated total reflection infrared spectroscopy. In this work, representative values for amide I absorptivities are obtained for 15 different films of globular proteins spread from H2O solutions. The observed intensities are corrected for variations in film thickness and for contributions of hydration water, atmospheric water, and side chains. These absorptivities, together with the reported secondary structure of the proteins investigated, are used to deduce the molar absorptivities of the individual secondary structure types. It is found that the molar absorptivity of beta-strands is 1.4-1.6 times larger than that of alpha-helices, which in turn is 1.3-2.1 times larger than those found for beta-turns or random coiled structures. The implications of our findings for spectral analysis currently used in literature are discussed.

Food-processing conditions may alter the allergenicity of food proteins by different means. In this study, the effect of the glycosylation as a result of thermal treatment on the digestibility and IgE-binding of codfish parvalbumin is investigated. Native and glycosylated parvalbumins were digested with pepsin at various conditions relevant for the gastrointestinal tract. Intact proteins and peptides were analysed for apparent molecular weight and IgE-binding. Glycosylation did not substantially affect the digestion. Although the peptides resulting from digestion were relatively large (3 and 4 kDa), the IgE-binding was strongly diminished. However, the glycosylated parvalbumin had a strong propensity to form dimers and tetramers, and these multimers bound IgE intensely, suggesting stronger IgE-binding than monomeric parvalbumin. We conclude that glycosylation of codfish parvalbumin does not affect the digestibility of parvalbumin and that the peptides resulting from this digestion show low IgE-binding, regardless of glycosylation. Glycosylation of parvalbumin leads to the formation of higher order structures that are more potent IgE binders than native, monomeric parvalbumin. Therefore, food-processing conditions applied to fish allergen can potentially lead to increased allergenicity, even while the protein’s digestibility is not affected by such processing.

Proteins are essential in foods, not only for their nutritional value, but also as modulator of structure and perception of a food product. The functional behavior of a protein is inherently susceptible to physico-chemical conditions as pH, ionic strength, temperature, or pressure, making them also an unpredictable, and at the same time, opportune component in food production. Proteins are generally also industrially costly, and with increasing world population and welfare the pressure on protein-availability for food purposes gives rise to some concerns. In view of a more sustainable use of protein-sources a number of routes have been followed in the past decades that provided big steps forward in protein availability: (i) more efficient production or protein refinery methods, (ii) use of alternative protein sources, and (iii) optimized usage of protein functionality. Especially in wheat production correlations between genetic expression and functional product behavior allowed breeders to optimize cultivars for geographic location (e.g. Payne et al., 1984). Alternatively, one has the ability to express specific proteins in non-original sources, for example human milk proteins in plants, such as rice (e.g. Lonnerdal, 2002). Directed alterations in the genome of food-producing organisms can lead to changes in the primary sequences of relevant proteins and thereby introduce potentially new functionality. If sufficient quantities of the novel protein are synthesized and become admixed with the basal levels of protein in the food, the functional properties of the food system (textureformation) may become improved. Alternatively, the modified protein can be isolated for use as food ingredient. More recently, a number of proteins from less-conventional origin have been identified as human food ingredients that one has started to exploit, e.g. algae, leafs, insects, and various seeds. Successful utilization of these new proteinaceous materials has thus far been rather limited, requiring breakthroughs in extractability, their digestibility, nutritive value, and overall functional and organoleptic properties. More downstream in the process is the modulation of protein functional behavior at an ingredient level. This can be physical-chemically, enzymatically, or via chemical engineering.

A new application of circular dichroism on oriented films of protein-lipid complexes is presented in this work, which provides quantitative information on the orientation of alpha-helices with respect to the incident light beam. We used literature reference circular dichroism spectra for the various secondary structures to develop a new set of spectra, where the different directions of absorption within the molecular axis frame for each secondary structure type are taken into account. Using this new set of spectra, we could determine the orientation of the helical part of melittin in oriented films composed of various phospholipids. The orientation of the helix axis is found to be perpendicular to the membrane normal of films of dioleoylphosphatidylcholine, dioleoylphosphatidylglycerol, and dioleoylphosphatidylserine, whereas the helix was aligned preferentially parallel to the membrane normal for membranes composed of dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine and dimyristoylphosphatidylglycerol at a hydration of approximately 2-4 water molecules per lipid. The orientations found by circular dichroism at this low hydration for the various systems agreed very well with those obtained by Fourier transform infrared measurements on these samples. Upon increasing the hydration of the film (to approximately 20 water molecules per lipid), it is shown by circular dichroism that the orientation of the helix of melittin changes most in films of dioleoylphosphatidylserine, where it adopted, under these conditions, a preferred parallel orientation with respect to the membrane normal. Complications in the analysis of circular dichroism spectra of oriented samples are discussed and illustrated using patches of native purple membrane containing bacteriorhodopsin and films of alamethicin in dioleoylphosphatidylserine membranes.

The aggregation propensity of heat-treated codfish parvalbumin is investigated upon Maillardation of the protein under food-relevant conditions. About twelve of the fourteen lysine residues had reacted with glucose under these conditions. It is shown using circular dichroism and fluorescence that extensive coupling of glucose moieties on the protein surface does not affect the secondary and tertiary structural fold nor severely impair calcium-binding under ambient conditions. The glucosylated protein has a 3 °C higher denaturation temperature, while the free energy change involved with denaturation is reduced by 5-10%. It is shown by establishing insight in the change in heat capacity involved in the denaturation process that glucosylation of the protein is likely to result in a lower exposed hydrophobicity in the unfolded state. Aggregation kinetics, as monitored using light scattering techniques, shows that this lower exposed hydrophobicity of the denatured state slows down the aggregation process, while the shape and size of formed aggregates are comparable to those formed by non-glucosylated protein. This lower aggregation propensity allows a significantly faster digestion of heat-treated materials by pepsin. This work demonstrates that (pre-)processing of ingredients containing potential allergens, like cod fish parvalbumin, using food-relevant conditions may provide an effective tool to minimize risks of provoked allergic responses during food consumption.

UNLABELLED Parvalbumin from carp, a major allergen, was purified to homogeneity using ion exchange chromatography and size exclusion chromatography (estimated purity >95% to 98% based on SDS-PAGE and native PAGE) with a yield of 318 mg, and a number of basic biochemical characteristics were determined. The identity was confirmed by peptide-mass fingerprinting, and IgE-binding was demonstrated. The UV/Vis absorbance spectra were explained using the previously published amino acid sequences. Far UV-CD spectroscopy was used to confirm the folding character of parvalbumin. We conclude that parvalbumin from carp can be purified on a comparatively large (hundreds of milligrams) scale using a purification protocol that does not include denaturing steps. The purified protein resembles biochemical characteristics as were earlier published for carp parvalbumin, that is, a molecular weight of approximately 12 kDa, amino acid sequence identity and a secondary structure containing alpha-helices and beta-structures. The described method provides a yield sufficient to produce and characterize antibodies to construct immunochemical methods to detect parvalbumin in food, as well as for use as a standard calibrator for such assays. PRACTICAL APPLICATION Parvalbumin is a major allergen from fish. Here, we have purified a comparatively large quantity from carp that can be used to develop antisera for use in an assay method to detect fish allergens.

Recently, considerable attention has been given to the understanding of texture attributes that cannot directly be related to physical properties of food, such as creamy, crumbly and watery. The perception of these attributes is strongly related to the way the food is processed during food intake, mastication, swallowing of it and during the cleaning of the mouth after swallowing. Moreover, their perception is modulated by the interaction with other basic attributes, such as taste and aroma attributes (e.g. sourness and vanilla). To be able to link the composition and structure of food products to more complicated texture attributes, their initial physical/colloid chemical properties and the oral processing of these products must be well understood. Understanding of the processes in the mouth at colloidal length scales turned out to be essential to grasp the interplay between perception, oral physiology and food properties. In view of the huge differences in physical chemical properties between food products, it is practical to make a distinction between solid, semi-solid, and liquid food products. The latter ones are often liquid dispersions of emulsion droplets or particles in general. For liquid food products for instance flow behaviour and colloidal stability of dispersed particles play a main role in determining their textural properties. For most solid products stiffness and fracture behaviour in relation to water content are essential while for semi-solids a much larger range of mechanical properties will play a role. Examples of colloidal aspects of texture perception will be discussed for these three categories of products based on selected sensory attributes and/or relevant colloidal processes. For solid products some main factors determining crispness will be discussed. For crispiness of dry cellular solid products these are water content and the architecture of the product at mesoscopic length scales (20-1000 μm). In addition the distribution of water at mesoscopic length scales was found to be important. For semi-solid foods, sensory characteristics as spreadability, watery and crumbliness are primarily determined by food properties at mesoscopic length scales. Crumbliness is directly related to the formation of free running cracks that occur during eating of the product. Exudation of the continuous liquid phase of gels during compression gives rise to watery/juicy sensory attributes. For liquid food products, colloidal interactions of emulsion droplets, particles, proteins, and polysaccharides with saliva and oral surfaces were found to affect texture characteristics as creaminess, fattiness, roughness and astringency. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The effect of ovalbumin net charge on aggregate morphology and visual properties was investigated using chromatography, electrophoresis, electron microscopy, and turbidity measurements. A range of differently charged ovalbumin variants (net charge ranging from -1 to -26 at pH 7) was produced using chemical engineering. With increasing net charge, the degree of branching and flexibility of the aggregates decreased. The turbidity of the solutions reflected the aggregate morphology that was observed with transmission electron microscopy. Increasing the stiffness of the aggregates transformed the solutions from turbid to transparent. Artificially shielding the introduced net charge by introducing salt in the solution resulted in an aggregate morphology that was similar to that for low-net-charge variants. The morphology of heat-induced aggregates and the visual appearance of the solutions were significantly affected by net charge. We also found that the morphology of ovalbumin aggregates can be rapidly probed by high-throughput turbidity experiments. © 2008 American Chemical Society.

The influence of lipid aggregates on the secondary structure of the mitochondrial precursor protein apocytochrome c was investigated by circular dichroism techniques. A conformational change of the protein from a random coil to partially α-helical structures was observed upon binding to negatively charged DOPS SUVs. Also DOPC SUVs showed to induce such a conformational change, but to a lesser extent. The detergents decyl-, lauryl and myristoyl-phosphoglycol or -phosphocholine, were synthesized as micel forming phospholipid analogs and are shown to mimic the phospholipids well in their ability to induce α-helices in the protein. A full assignment of the regions where the possible α-helices are formed is proposed by making use of derived fragments of apocytochrome c , prediction methods and the known X-ray structure of cytochrome c . Besides a helix at the N-terminus (residues 1–22) and at the C-terminal part (residues 80–101), two regions in the middle section (residues 49–54 und 59–70) are suggested to be helical. It is inferred that the two cysteines in the positions 14 an 17 at the N-terminal part are facing in the same direction, which could facilitate the covalent attachment of the heme group to the precursor in the translocation process.

By analyzing swabs from different locations in the mouth (front and middle part of the tongue, cheek and palate) of four subjects after oral processing of dressings, the composition of the retained material was evaluated in time using infrared spectroscopy in an attempt to substantiate the physical origin of differences in afterfeel sensations indicated by a trained panel for these dressings. Three dressings were prepared, each containing 40% oil, 10-14% protein and either starch, xanthan or a mixture of these two polysaccharides as thickener. There was no differential retention of fat/oil between the dressings, oral location or subject. Protein and carbohydrates followed that same clearance kinetics, with two exceptions: (1) xanthan/protein from the middle part of the tongue; and (2) starch/protein from the cheek and palate that both cleared only very slowly (10-30 min). The relation of these findings with afterfeel and saliva action is discussed. © 2007, Blackwell Publishing.

To study the influence of the carbohydrate-moiety of ovalbumin on the formation of the heat-stable conformer S-ovalbumin, ovalbumin is deglycosylated with PNGase-F under native conditions. Although the enzymatic deglycosylation procedure resulted in a complete loss of the ability to bind to Concavalin A column-material, only in about 50% the proteins lost their complete carbohydrate moiety, as demonstrated by mass spectrometry and size exclusion chromatography. Thermal stability and conformational changes were determined using circular dichroism and differential scanning calorimetry and demonstrated at ambient temperature no conformational changes due to the deglycosylation. Also the denaturation temperature of the processed proteins remained the same (77.4 ± 0.4°C). After heat treatment of the processed protein at 55°C and pH 9.9 for 72 h, the condition that converts native ovalbumin into the heat-stable conformer (S-ovalbumin), only the material with the intact carbohydrate moiety forms this heat-stable conformer. The material that effectively lost its carbohydrate moiety appeared fully denatured and aggregated due to these processing conditions. These results indicate that the PNGase-F treatment of ovalbumin prohibits the formation and stabilization of the heat-stable conformer S-ovalbumin. Since S-ovalbumin in egg protein samples is known to affect functional properties, this work illustrates a potential route to control the quality of egg protein ingredients. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

In order to understand foaming behaviour of mixed protein/anionic polysaccharide solutions, we investigated the effect of β-lactoglobulin/pectin interaction in the bulk on β-lactoglobulin adsorption to the air-water interface. Adsorption kinetics were evaluated by following surface pressure development in time of several pure protein solutions and of mixed protein/polysaccharide solutions using an automated drop tensiometer (ADT). It was found that complexation of proteins with polysaccharides can slow down the kinetics of surface pressure development by at least a factor 100, and greatly diminish foam formation. In contrast, a five times acceleration in the increase of surface pressure was observed in other cases. We propose a mechanism for protein adsorption from mixed protein/polysaccharide solutions. Effects of ionic strength, pH and mixing ratio on this mechanism were studied for mixtures of β-lactoglobulin and low methoxyl pectin, whereas other proteins and anionic polysaccharides were used to explore the role of protein and polysaccharide charge density and distribution. Whereas the possibilities to change system parameters like ionic strength or pH are limited in food related systems, selecting a suitable combination of protein and polysaccharide offers a broad opportunity to control protein adsorption kinetics and with that foam formation. © 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The aim of this work is to evaluate the impact of sulfhydryl groups on ovalbumin aggregation and gelation. Ovalbumin was chemically modified to add sulfhydryl groups in various degrees. The rate of aggregation was not affected by the introduction of sulfhydryl groups, and disulfide bond formation was preceded by physical interactions. Hence, disulfide interactions may not be the driving force for the aggregation of ovalbumin. Investigation of the aggregates and gels by electron microscopy and rheology suggested that a critical number of sulfhydryl groups can be introduced beyond which the microstructure of the aggregates transforms from fibrillar into amorphous. Rheological studies further suggested that covalent networks, once formed, do not have the possibility to rearrange, reducing the possibility to attain a stronger network. These results show that, even though aggregation of ovalbumin may be primarily driven by physical interactions, formed disulfide bonds are important to determine the resulting aggregate morphology and rheological properties. © 2006 American Chemical Society.

Gas cell stability during bread making is controlled by both surface and bulk properties. This paper is focused on studying the surface properties of the water-soluble phase of the dough, the dough liquor (with and without lipids), as well as the composition of the air/water interface. Using infrared reflection measurements, we showed that in lipid-poor liquor, proteins are the dominant species present at the air/water interface. With complete liquor (including the lipids), a mixed interface of protein and lipids is obtained. However, the presence of lipids in the surface layer did not significantly affect the surface pressure. We also added enzymes to the flour to evaluate in what way the surface-active properties of the liquor components can be affected. These results were compared to the effect of adding a surfactant [diacetyl tartaric esters of mono- and diglycerides (DATEM)]. Biobake 10804, a xylanase that increased the arabinoxylan content of the dough liquor, decreased the surface pressure and increased the dilational modulus in lipid-poor liquor. This effect was not observed with the liquor including the lipids. Lipopan 50 BG, a 1,3-specific lipase, increased the surface pressure of the liquor that included the lipids. Lipopan F BG, which converts polar lipids to their lyso form, strongly increased the surface pressure not only in the lipid-containing liquor but also in the lipid-poor liquor. DATEM, as expected, increased the surface pressure while strongly decreasing the dilational modulus. Results of these studies were used to help explain changes in loaf volume observed in a series of baking tests, using the same enzymes and additives. This led to the conclusion that the effect of surface-active components alone cannot account for the larger loaf volumes observed. Clearly, both the effect of bulk and interfacial rheological properties should be considered together when explaining gas cell stability. © Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. 2006.

The stability of adsorbed protein layers against deformation has in literature been attributed to the formation of a continuous gel-like network. This hypothesis is mostly based on measurements of the increase of the surface shear elasticity with time. For several proteins this increase has been attributed to the formation of intermolecular disulfide bridges between adsorbed proteins. However, according to an alternative model the shear elasticity results from the low mobility of the densely packed proteins. To contribute to this discussion, the actual role of disulfide bridges in interfacial layers is studied. Ovalbumin was thiolated with S-acetylmercaptosuccinic anhydride (S-AMSA), followed by removal of the acetylblock on the sulphur atom, resulting in respectively blocked (SX) and deblocked (SH) ovalbumin variants. This allows comparison of proteins with identical amino acid sequence and similar globular packing and charge distribution, but different chemical reactivity. The presence and reactivity of the introduced, deblocked sulfhydryl groups were confirmed using the sulfhydryl-disulfide exchange index (SEI). Despite the reactivity of the introduced sulfhydryl groups measured in solution, no increase in the surface shear elasticity could be detected with increasing reactivity. This indicates that physical rather than chemical interactions determine the surface shear behaviour. Further experiments were performed in bulk solution to study the conditions needed to induce covalent aggregate formation. From these studies it was found that mere concentration of proteins (to 200 mg/mL, equivalent to a surface concentration of around 2 mg/m2) is not sufficient to induce significant aggregation to form a continuous network. In view of these results, it was concluded that the adsorbed layer should not be considered a gelled network of aggregated material (in analogy with three-dimensional gels formed from heating protein solutions). Rather, it would appear that the adsorbed proteins form a highly packed system of proteins with net-repulsive interactions. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

In this short review we discuss the role of cysteine residues and cystine bridges for the functional aggregation of food proteins. We evaluate how formation and cleavage of disulphide bonds proceeds at a molecular level, and how inter- and intramolecular disulfide bonds can be detected and modified. The differences between heat-, high-pressure-, and denaturant-induced unfolding and aggregation are discussed. The effect of disulphide bonding between aggregates of proteins and protein mixtures on the functional macroscopic properties of space filling networks in protein gels is briefly presented.

Information on changes in heat capacity (ΔCp) of proteins upon unfolding is used frequently in literature to understand possible follow-up reactions of protein denaturation, like their aggregation propensity. This thermodynamic property is intrinsic to the protein's architecture and unfolding and should be independent of the approach used to evaluate it. However, for many proteins, the reported values for ΔCp vary considerably. To identify whether the origin of these discrepancies lies within the experimental approach chosen and/or in the too simplified unfolding models used in the analysis of the data, we choose β-lactoglobulin A, a relatively small protein, but disputed for its two-state unfolding, and established its ΔCp from tryptophan fluorescence, near-UV circular dichroism and differential scanning calorimetric measurements. In view of the large variation for the obtained ΔCp (between 3.2 and 10.1 ± 0.8 kJ/(mol K)), it is evident that: (1) the sensitivity of different approaches to the structural changes; (2) irreversibility of unfolding; (3) non-ideal two-state unfolding behaviour need to be considered prior to interpretation. While the first two points can be addressed by using multiple approaches, the applicability of the selected unfolding behaviour for the analysis is often less easy to establish. In this work, we illustrate that by checking the wavelength-dependence used to detect protein conformational changes a tool is provided that gives a direct insight in the validity of the interpretation in these studies. An experimentally validated determination of ΔCp allows a more proper use for the mechanistic understanding of protein denaturation and its follow-up reactions, avoiding pitfalls in the interpretation. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.