QTL Mapping of the Pasting Properties of Wheat Flour Treated by Papain Digestion

Protein hydrolysis is widely used in the food industry to improve food or industrial quality, and processing is carried out concurrently or subsequently to starch pasting. In this study, QTL mapping of the pasting properties of natural wheat flour (NWF) and papain-treated flour (PTF) was performed in three environments. These analyses involved a set of 173F(9:10) recombinant inbred lines (RILs) derived from Shannong01-35xGaocheng9411 with a genetic linkage map consisting of 6248 molecular markers. The additive, epistatic, and epistaticxenvironment interaction effects of QTLs for pasting properties were analyzed. A total of 43 and 31 additive QTLs for pasting properties were detected using NWF and PTF, respectively. QPv1A.4-1, QPv4B.4-17, QTv1A.4-1, QTv4B.4-17, QSb4B.4-17, QPt1A.4-1, and QPt4B.4-17 were identified using both NWF and PTF. In contrast, QPv6A.2-128, QTv6A.2-128, QFv6A.2-75, and QBd6A.2-128 were only identified in wheat flour; thus, these QTLs are related to the papain digestion site. Five and eight pairs of epistatic interaction QTLs were identified in NWF and PTF, respectively. QPv1A.4-1/QPv4B.4-17 and QTv1A.4-1/QTv4B.4-17 were identified in NWF and PTF, whereas, QInA1A.4-1 and QInA4B.4-17 were only detected in PTF. Two and three pairs of epistaticxenvironment interactions were detected in NWF and PTF, respectively. In the present study, two important QTL clusters (3 QTLs) were detected from NWF, and three clusters were detected from PTF. The results of the comprehensive evaluation of protein hydrolysis and starch pasting provide valuable information to facilitate the improvement of wheat flour quality and promote the molecular breeding of wheat.