Polymerization kinetics of wheat gluten upon thermosetting. A mechanistic model.

Size exclusion high-performance liquid chromatography analysis was carried out on wheat gluten-glycerol blends subjected to different heat treatments. The elution profiles were analyzed in order to follow the solubility loss of protein fractions with specific molecular size. Owing to the known biochemical changes involved during the heat denaturation of gluten, a mechanistic mathematical model was developed, which divided the protein denaturation into two distinct reaction steps: (i) reversible change in protein conformation and (ii) protein precipitation through disulfide bonding between initially SDS-soluble and SDS-insoluble reaction partners. Activation energies of gluten unfolding, refolding, and precipitation were calculated with the Arrhenius law to 53.9 kJ x mol(-1), 29.5 kJ x mol(-1), and 172 kJ x mol(-1), respectively. The rate of protein solubility loss decreased as the cross-linking reaction proceeded, which may be attributed to the formation of a three-dimensional network progressively hindering the reaction. The enhanced susceptibility to aggregation of large molecules was assigned to a risen reaction probability due to their higher number of cysteine residues and to the increased percentage of unfolded and thereby activated proteins as complete protein refolding seemed to be an anticooperative process.