New Insights into the Potential of Endogenous Redox Systems in Wheat Bread Dough

Various redox compounds are known to influence the structure of the gluten network in bread dough, and hence its strength. The cereal thioredoxin system (NTS), composed of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH)-dependent thioredoxin reductase (NTR) and thioredoxin (Trx), is a major reducing enzymatic system that is involved in seed formation and germination. NTS is a particularly interesting tool for food processing due to its heat stability and its broad range of protein substrates. We show here that barley NTS is capable of remodeling the gluten network and weakening bread dough. Furthermore, functional wheat Trx that is present in the dough can be recruited by the addition of recombinant barley NTR, resulting in dough weakening. These results confirm the potential of NTS, especially NTR, as a useful tool in baking for weakening strong doughs, or in flat product baking.