Research Scientist University of Western Australia Crawley, Western Australia, Australia
Body of Abstract: Plant protein often gets associated with two key aspects, the total content of protein and its quality for markets and products. Both are influenced by environmental factors as well as breeding and farming strategies. To enable targeted improvement of proteins of interest, we must better understand the underlying biological mechanisms involved in protein metabolism and the transcriptional and post-translational processes involved (Cao et al., 2021). In addition, to improve protein content and quality for future generations to come, solutions need to be developed and managed in a sustainable environment. I will give an overview of our recent research that is focussed on identifying when, why and how rapidly proteins get synthesised and degraded with the long-term goal of enabling manipulation of these processes to improve efficiency of plant metabolism and increase protein content sustainably (Cao et al., 2022). Wheat grain storage proteins are important for protein quality as they improve flour and dough making qualities. During grain development these storage proteins are rapidly synthesized, but some also get degraded, thereby lowering the protein content and quality by the time of harvest (Cao et al., 2022). Our current research is focussed on identifying how the cell determines age of a protein and targets it for degradation and whether this regulation is influenced by ribosomal changes and alteration of translation rates. We have new insights into improving protein quality in wheat under different nitrogen timing and biological microbial based fertiliser regimes to reduce amounts of synthetic fertilisers in the environment and have field trials underway. Furthermore, we are working on improving wheat quality and health safety by identifying genetic and environmental factors that influence free asparagine levels that accumulate in wheat grain as byproducts of protein synthesis and degradation and can get converted to toxic acrylamide during the cooking process.