Janus and Argus: Multiple and opposite aspects of non-gluten proteins in ancient grains

Many ancient grains such as sorghum, teff, and amaranth are gaining popularity because of their potential health benefits as human food. Often they are main staples for the world’s poorest and most insecure people, especially in the arid and marginal areas of the semi-tropics. All these crops are gluten-free cereals, and their nutritional properties are of interest as for enhancing processing and marketing opportunities by the food industry. The major protein fraction in these grains are globulins, and therefore, the production of a protein network such as the one formed by gluten proteins in wheat-based products is strongly impaired when using untreated flour as the only (or predominant) component of dough. Thus physical or biotechnological pre-treatment of grains/flours in order to modify in a suitable way the properties of macromolecular components (starch and proteins) relevant to the structure of the final product. The main focus of this presentation will be on understanding the various structural modification that proteins in the individual grains undergo in relationship to different types of the (bio)technological treatments used or proposed for their transformation. Peculiar aspects of these issues involve also the interaction among proteins, and between proteins and other components of the systems at various stages in the different processes. The effects of the loss/gain of these interactions as due to biotechnological processes is very grain-specific, and often has important consequences in terms of the ability of the processed materials to undergo a given transformation and in terms of the nutritional properties of the final product(s). Some of these issues will be addressed with reference to both "traditional" foods and to "innovative" ones that could be of interest also outside those Countries where these grains are traditionally used.