The market demand for pea-based protein is in decline due to their poor flavour. It is well documented that off-flavor in peas are associated with the presence of saponins and oxidation products resulted from lipoxygenase (LOX) activity. While some saponins can be separated from proteins through downstream processes, reducing LOX activity through breeding is of high interest as the enzyme is very potent post-harvest, and removing downstream oxidation products is challenging.
The purpose of this project is to screen the LOX activity of several pea varieties from a diversity panel using fluorescence spectroscopy. Subsequently, peas of different levels of LOX activity will be evaluated further using electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy, where different spin traps will be evaluated to determine the nature of the radicals (e.g. carbon/nitrogen bound and/or transfer potential to proteins). Depending on the length of the project, the influence of processing on the LOX activity and free radical generation can also be included as part of the project.
Data resulting from this project will be used for development towards strains with low LOX activity and is therefore of interest to a partner company in plant breeding. This project is aligned with a GUDP-funded project (https://www.foodbiocluster.dk/projekter/klimaepro) and the student will be aligned and co-supervised by two postdoctoral researchers.
The project is aligned to UN's SGD:
