The scale of the atmospheric shift is striking. Since 1980, the global carbon dioxide concentration has climbed from roughly 340 parts per million to about 425 parts per million in 2024, and depending on future socioeconomic pathways it could approach 600 parts per million by 2050. Wheat grown in the coming decades will therefore develop under air that is fundamentally different from the air in which nearly all modern cultivars were bred. Because the proteins stored in the grain determine both the technological performance of flour and the presence of molecules linked to wheat-related disorders, researchers have long wanted to know how this silent chemical transformation proceeds under realistic field conditions.

Such knowledge has been surprisingly scarce. Only a handful of field trials have examined how elevated carbon dioxide affects the full protein composition of wheat, largely because the experiments demand open-air facilities capable of enriching the atmosphere around growing crops while keeping every other variable intact. To close this gap, an interdisciplinary team from the Leibniz Institute, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, the Bavarian State Research Center for Agriculture, and the Forschungszentrum Jülich cultivated ten winter wheat cultivars under realistic growing and environmental conditions, exposing some plants to an elevated concentration of 546 parts per million while others grew under current ambient levels.

After harvest, the scientists analyzed the grain samples with a high-resolution mass spectrometric method they had developed themselves, allowing them to track individual protein families with unusual precision. Their attention centered on three groups with very different roles in the grain. Amylase/trypsin-inhibitors are the plant’s natural defense against herbivores but are also suspected of triggering allergies and contributing to non-celiac wheat sensitivity. Puroindolines largely determine kernel hardness and thereby shape the processing and baking properties of the flour. Gluten proteins, finally, are the backbone of breadmaking quality, yet they also contain specific amino acid sequences that digestive enzymes in the gastrointestinal tract cleave into celiac disease-active peptides, short chains of two to fifty amino acids that can provoke an immune response in genetically predisposed individuals.

The direction of the changes was consistent across the trial, but its magnitude was anything but uniform. Under elevated carbon dioxide, the content of amylase/trypsin-inhibitors generally increased, while the concentrations of puroindolines, gluten proteins, and certain celiac disease-active peptides derived from gluten during digestion decreased. How strongly each cultivar responded, however, depended largely on its genetic background. The reduced concentration of gluten proteins was associated with poorer baking quality, a finding that links the atmospheric environment directly to the loaf-forming potential of the flour.

The cultivar differences revealed by the full evaluation were among the most consequential results of the study. Nine of the ten cultivars lost grain protein under elevated carbon dioxide, with reductions ranging from 1.9 to 10.3 percent. The single exception was Hyvega, whose grain protein content actually rose by 2.7 percent under the same conditions. Across all parameters examined, Asory, Campesino, LG Initial, and Moschus reacted sensitively to the enriched atmosphere, whereas Apostel and KWS Emerick proved comparatively tolerant. These contrasts suggest that the breeding pool already contains genetic variation that could be harnessed to stabilize grain composition in a high-carbon-dioxide future.

For the researchers, the implications extend beyond baking performance. Katharina Scherf, who heads the Food Biopolymer Chemistry research group at the Leibniz Institute and is professor of Food Biopolymer Systems at the TUM School of Life Sciences, notes that the observed changes in amylase/trypsin-inhibitors and certain celiac disease-active peptides could be relevant in the long term for wheat-related diseases. She emphasizes, however, that further studies are needed to clarify the actual biological and immunological significance of these differences, a caution that reflects how complex the relationship between grain chemistry and human health remains. Celiac disease itself is a chronic disorder of the small intestine triggered mainly by gluten in genetically predisposed people, and it is still not fully understood which factors beyond genetic predisposition contribute to its development.

Sabrina Geisslitz, principal investigator and research associate in Scherf’s research group, underscores the practical message of the trial. The extent of the carbon-dioxide-induced changes depended largely on the specific wheat cultivar, she explains, and the results showed that the reduced gluten concentration went hand in hand with poorer baking quality. In other words, the same atmospheric shift that erodes the technological heart of the flour also modulates the protein fractions most often discussed in connection with wheat intolerability, making quality traits inseparable from the climate question.

The study, published in Food Chemistry under the title Elevated CO₂ induces cultivar-dependent changes in wheat proteins linked to wheat-related disorders and baking quality, arrives with a clear recommendation for plant breeding. As crops are adapted to climate change, the authors argue, selection should in the future focus not only on high yields but also on quality characteristics such as protein composition. The goal they identify is to breed wheat cultivars that maintain high baking quality even under rising carbon dioxide concentrations while containing as few potentially intolerable proteins as possible, a dual constraint that will test the creativity of cereal breeders worldwide.

The work was funded by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Regional Identity through the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food as part of the Innovation Promotion Program, project number 2818404B18, and co-funded by the European Union through the European Research Council project GLUTENOMICS. As the atmosphere continues its upward climb toward concentrations that no modern wheat has ever experienced in the field, the trial offers a rare empirical glimpse of what that future grain will look like, and a reminder that the quality of the world’s bread supply is now being written, molecule by molecule, in the air above the fields.

Subject of Research: Effects of elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide on the protein composition, baking quality, and wheat-related disease relevance of winter wheat cultivars

Article Title: Climate change affects the quality of one of the world’s most important staple foods

Article References: Climate change affects the quality of one of the world’s most important staple foods. (n.d.). Original publication

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: Not provided

Keywords: climate change, carbon dioxide, wheat, protein composition, gluten, baking quality, celiac disease, amylase trypsin inhibitors, puroindolines, food chemistry, plant breeding, food security

The research team, led by Giovanni D’Auria and Massimo Blandino, worked at a genuinely industrial scale, milling 100 tonnes of each grain at a commercial plant in Italy. Roller milling produced refined flour at a 78 percent extraction rate, while stone milling yielded semi-whole flour at 90 percent extraction. This distinction matters because the degree of refinement determines how much bran, germ, and fiber remain in the flour, and those components interact with proteins and starch in ways that ripple through every downstream process, from dough mixing to enzymatic breakdown in the intestine.

At the molecular level, the two cereals told strikingly different stories. Tritordeum flour contained roughly 17 percent protein compared with about 13 percent in bread wheat, and its gluten content was substantially higher as well. Yet more protein did not translate into a stronger gluten network. Electrophoretic and chromatographic profiling showed that tritordeum carried a lower relative proportion of high-molecular-weight glutenin subunits, the protein building blocks responsible for elasticity and dough strength. It also harbored hordein proteins inherited from its wild barley parent, including C-hordeins that lack cysteine residues and therefore cannot form the disulfide bonds that stitch a resilient gluten network together. The result was a dough that aggregated quickly under shear but lacked the mixing stability and elastic recovery of wheat dough.

Rheological testing confirmed this paradox. In the GlutoPeak test, tritordeum reached its aggregation peak faster and with higher torque than wheat, suggesting a firm, consistent aggregate forming under high-shear conditions. But in the Farinograph, tritordeum dough needed longer to develop and held its optimal consistency for a shorter time under continuous mixing. Water absorption was notably higher for tritordeum under both milling systems, a consequence of its elevated fiber and protein content competing with gluten proteins for available water. The Alveograph showed that stone-milled tritordeum dough was more resistant to deformation but less extensible, while its elasticity index was significantly lower than wheat under both milling conditions, indicating a reduced ability to spring back after stretching.

Starch behavior added another layer of distinction. Tritordeum starch required higher pasting temperatures and longer heating times before viscosity developed, and it reached a lower maximum viscosity than wheat starch. Its breakdown and setback values were also significantly lower, pointing to granules that swell slowly, resist disruption during prolonged heating, and reassociate weakly during cooling. Previous work on isolated tritordeum starch attributed this behavior to small granule size and a high lipid content that forms starch-lipid complexes and restricts water diffusion. These are not trivial differences; they shape how a flour performs in the oven and, as the digestion experiments later showed, how quickly its carbohydrates surrender to pancreatic enzymes.

To test whether these flour-level differences mattered in real food, the researchers produced fresh pasta, breadsticks, bread, and pizza bases from both flours and both milling streams. The outcomes were product-specific in a way that defies any simple ranking of the two cereals. Tritordeum breadsticks were consistently harder and tougher than wheat versions, a denser structure that suits a low-moisture product where fracture resistance is a virtue rather than a flaw. Fresh pasta made from stone-milled tritordeum was firmer and required more work of shear, while roller-milled tritordeum pasta absorbed more water during cooking without losing more solids. Pizza bases made with tritordeum were markedly softer than wheat versions under both milling systems, demonstrating that a weaker, less elastic gluten network can be an advantage when the goal is tenderness rather than loft.

Bread told the most nuanced story. Roller-milled tritordeum bread achieved a specific volume about 20 percent lower than wheat bread and was firmer to the touch, consistent with its limited gas retention. But when stone milling entered the picture, the volume gap vanished entirely, as bran particles disrupted gluten continuity in both cereals and dragged wheat bread down to tritordeum’s level. Intriguingly, the stone-milled tritordeum bread was actually softer than its wheat counterpart despite identical volumes, suggesting that its restricted starch retrogradation slowed crumb firming during cooling. Color added a visible signature: tritordeum flour and products showed substantially higher yellowness, reflecting carotenoid levels three to five times those of wheat, dominated by the xanthophyll lutein, which protects the retina from photochemical damage.

The digestion experiments, conducted with the standardized INFOGEST protocol simulating oral, gastric, and intestinal phases, produced perhaps the most consequential findings. Bread and pizza showed the highest overall protein digestibility for both cereals, indicating that their porous, baked structures facilitate enzymatic access. More remarkably, tritordeum bread and fresh pasta were digested significantly more completely than their wheat counterparts, with a higher apparent release of essential amino acids in the intestinal phase. The researchers attribute this to the less interconnected protein network of tritordeum, which leaves storage proteins more exposed to digestive enzymes. Glutamine and proline dominated the released amino acids, as expected from gluten proteins, but the tritordeum bread and pizza formulations released more of the essential ones.

Starch digestion in bread revealed an even more dramatic divergence. After 300 minutes of simulated duodenal digestion, the free glucose release kinetics were similar between the two breads, but the residual hydrolysable starch fraction was significantly lower in tritordeum, and its resistant starch content reached 3.5 grams per 100 grams of bread, five times the 0.7 grams measured in wheat bread and well above the 0.8 grams typical of conventional wheat loaves. Combined digestible starch fractions totaled roughly 51 grams of starch equivalents per 100 grams for tritordeum versus 58 for wheat, hinting at a lower glycemic load, though the authors caution that a static in vitro model cannot confirm postprandial effects in living humans and that static protocols may underestimate starch hydrolysis by prematurely inactivating salivary amylase.

The study’s authors are careful to frame their conclusions within its limits: only one cultivar of each cereal was tested, and the observed differences reflect the combined effects of flour composition, hydration levels, and processing conditions rather than cereal identity alone. Still, the central message is clear and potentially transformative. The technological quality and nutritional fate of a cereal food cannot be predicted from flour composition or dough rheology alone; they emerge from the interplay of protein organization, fiber content, starch functionality, milling choice, and product structure. For tritordeum, that means it is neither a universal upgrade nor a downgrade relative to wheat, but a versatile raw material whose strengths, higher protein digestibility, dramatically more resistant starch, carotenoid richness, and softer textures in the right applications, must be matched to the right product. As consumers seek grains that are gentler on sensitive digestive systems, tritordeum has already shown tolerability in people with non-celiac wheat sensitivity and symptom improvement in irritable bowel syndrome patients, and this new matrix-level evidence gives the food industry a scientific roadmap for putting the golden hybrid to work.

Subject of Research: Matrix-driven effects of tritordeum and wheat flours on the technological quality and digestibility of cereal-based foods

Article Title: From milling to digestion: matrix-driven effects of tritordeum and wheat flours on the technological quality and digestibility of cereal-based foods

Article References: D’AURIA, G., SARDELLA, C., BRESCIANI, A., GRAZIUSO, F., NITRIDE, C., PELLEGRINO, L., FERRANTI, P., MARTI, A., & BLANDINO, M. (2026). From milling to digestion: matrix-driven effects of tritordeum and wheat flours on the technological quality and digestibility of cereal-based foods. Current Research in Food Science, Article 101595. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crfs.2026.101595

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1016/j.crfs.2026.101595

Keywords: tritordeum, bread wheat, milling, gluten proteins, starch digestibility, resistant starch, in vitro digestion, food matrix, rheology, lutein, baking quality, fresh pasta

The research, published in Food Science & Nutrition, examined three teff varieties from the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research’s Debrezeit Agricultural Research Center: Bora, a very white grain; Jitu, a pale white variety; and Filagot, a red-grained type. Each variety was milled using a local attrition milling method and then fractionated through standard laboratory test sieves into three size classes: a coarse fraction between 260 and 360 micrometers, a middle fraction between 160 and 260 micrometers, and a fine fraction between 90 and 160 micrometers. Particles larger than 360 micrometers and smaller than 90 micrometers were removed, giving the researchers tightly controlled flour fractions to work with.

The first striking finding concerned bulk density, a property that matters enormously to food manufacturers because it determines how much flour fits into a given volume and how it packs during storage and transport. As particle size decreased from the coarsest to the finest fraction, bulk density rose from 0.72 to 0.86 grams per milliliter. The explanation is geometric: smaller particles nestle into the pore spaces left between larger ones, reducing porosity and increasing compaction. Variety also mattered, with the red Filagot flour reaching the highest bulk density at 0.83 grams per milliliter, compared with 0.74 for the white Bora variety. Similar patterns have been reported for other milled products, including sugar beet powder, whose bulk density climbed as particles shrank.

Flow behavior told the opposite story. Using the funnel method, the researchers measured the angle of repose, the natural slope a conical heap of flour forms when poured onto a flat surface. Finer flours produced steeper heaps: the angle rose from 37.40 degrees for the coarsest fraction to 41.80 degrees for the finest. This happens because smaller particles have more surface area per unit mass, giving cohesive surface forces and friction more opportunity to act and making the powder stickier and harder to move. For engineers designing hoppers and conveying systems, the implication is practical and important: the inclination of a hopper must exceed the flour’s angle of repose to keep material flowing without clogging, so finer teff flours will demand steeper equipment geometries.

Color measurements on the Hunter L, a, b scale revealed a subtle but consistent relationship between particle size and appearance. Lightness values increased as particles got smaller, rising from 66.88 for the coarsest fraction to 68.73 for the finest, while redness and yellowness values both fell. The researchers attribute this to the fine, homogeneous pores of smaller particles, which absorb less light and reflect more, making the flour appear lighter and less saturated. Variety effects were even more pronounced: the white Bora flour scored the highest lightness at 70.29, while the red Filagot flour scored lowest at 64.74 and showed the highest redness value, a consequence of pigments from the grain’s seed coat dispersing through the flour during milling. In terms of color alone, the finest fraction was judged the most desirable, being lighter and less reddish than its coarser counterparts.

Mineral analysis added a nutritional dimension to the varietal comparison. The red Filagot variety significantly outperformed its white relatives, delivering 132 milligrams of calcium, 14.31 milligrams of iron, and 4.14 milligrams of zinc per 100 grams of flour, roughly double the iron content of the Bora variety. This aligns with earlier findings that red teff tends to be richer in iron than white types. Intriguingly, particle size had no significant effect on mineral content, meaning that milling finer does not dilute the grain’s micronutrient profile. The minerals were evenly distributed across fractions, so processors can pursue fine milling for functional benefits without sacrificing nutritional value.

The sensory heart of the study came when the flours were transformed into cookies using a standard formulation of teff flour, sugar, shortening, salt, baking soda, and water, baked at 190 degrees Celsius for 18 minutes. Thirty trained panelists, drawn from food science and food technology departments, evaluated the cookies within 24 hours of baking on a seven-point hedonic scale covering color, texture, crispness, taste, flavor, and overall acceptability. The results were unambiguous: finer flour made better cookies. Samples made from the 90 to 160 micrometer fraction scored highest on nearly every attribute, with overall acceptability reaching 6.00, compared with just 4.90 for cookies made from the coarsest flour.

Crispness showed one of the most compelling particle-size relationships. Cookies baked from the finest flour earned a crispness score of 6.51, while those from the coarsest flour managed only 5.74. The researchers explain this through starch damage and surface area: smaller particles present more surface to the dough matrix, producing a thinner, more brittle structure that fractures cleanly rather than deforming during chewing. As particle size increases, the force and energy required to break the cookie rise, making samples harder and less crispy. Variety mattered too, though differently across attributes. Bora cookies dominated in color, texture, taste, flavor, and overall acceptability, scoring 6.35 overall, while the red Filagot cookies lagged at 4.43, likely penalized by their darker color, which lowered consumer preference despite the variety’s superior mineral content.

The study’s broader significance lies in what it means for teff’s global future. Despite an exceptional nutritional profile, complete with all essential amino acids and more lysine and vitamins than most other cereals, teff remains largely confined to Ethiopia, and industrial processing of the grain is still in its infancy. By demonstrating that variety and particle size jointly govern flour behavior and consumer acceptance, the research gives millers and bakers a concrete parameter to optimize. The finest fraction, 90 to 160 micrometers, combined favorable flow characteristics for handling with the best sensory outcomes in the baked product, while the white Bora variety proved the strongest candidate for consumer-facing products. The panelists’ scores spanned the full hedonic range, from a low of 4.00, meaning neither like nor dislike, for coarse Filagot cookies up to 7.00, meaning liked very much, for fine Bora cookies, a spread that underscores just how much processing decisions can shape the fate of a single ingredient.

For a grain that has sustained Ethiopian communities for millennia, these findings offer a roadmap for wider adoption. Gluten-free markets are expanding rapidly as consumers seek alternatives to wheat, and teff brings antioxidant properties and a complete amino acid profile that few competitors can match. The lesson from this research is that nutrition alone will not win over global palates; the physical craft of milling, the size of each particle, and the choice of variety all converge to determine whether a teff cookie delights or disappoints. With the right combination of fine milling and light-colored grain, this ancient Ethiopian staple may finally be positioned to take its place on bakery shelves worldwide.

Subject of Research: Effect of teff flour variety and particle size on flour physicochemical properties and gluten-free cookie sensory quality

Article Title: Impact of Particle Size on Flour Physicochemical Properties and Cookies Sensory Acceptability Made From Teff (Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter)

Article References: Boka, A. L., & Tolesa, G. N. (2026). Impact of Particle Size on Flour Physicochemical Properties and Cookies Sensory Acceptability Made From Teff ( Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter). Food Science & Nutrition, 14(10), Article e72432. https://doi.org/10.1002/fsn3.72432

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1002/fsn3.72432

Keywords: teff, flour particle size, gluten-free cookies, bulk density, angle of repose, sensory evaluation, food color, mineral content, Ethiopia, food processing, Eragrostis tef, baking quality

The research team, led by Jared Lile with Jennifer Lachowiec, Jason D. Fiedler of the USDA Agricultural Research Service, and Jason P. Cook, mined twelve years of historical quality data from the Montana State University Spring Wheat Breeding Program, spanning 2010 through 2022. In total, 842 lines were phenotyped, including 24 check varieties and 818 elite experimental lines of hard red spring wheat, a market class that accounted for roughly a quarter of total United States wheat production in 2024. Hard red spring wheat is prized for its high grain protein content and gluten strength, and its market price depends directly on how well the flour performs in the mill, the mixer, and the oven.

The twelve traits under scrutiny spanned the full quality spectrum, from milling characteristics such as flour yield and ash content, through dough properties like mix time, mix water absorption, and mix tolerance, to baking outcomes including bake mixing time, bake water absorption, and loaf volume. Measurements followed American Association of Cereal Chemists protocols, using near-infrared reflectance instruments for protein determination, a Brabender Quadrumat Sr. mill for flour yield, a Mixograph for dough rheology, and standardized bake tests for loaf volume. Single kernel hardness was captured separately with a single-kernel characterization system. This depth of phenotyping, sustained over more than a decade, is what gave the study its statistical power.

On the genetic side, the team used genotyping-by-sequencing to profile all 842 lines, ultimately retaining 21,958 single nucleotide polymorphisms after filtering and imputation against the Chinese Spring wheat reference genome. Broad-sense heritability, calculated with the Cullis method suited to unbalanced datasets, proved high for nearly every trait: all but one exceeded 0.60, with only wheat ash content falling to 0.39. That combination of high heritability and polygenic architecture, meaning many genes of small effect, makes end-use quality traits ideal candidates for genomic selection, which models the entire genome simultaneously rather than tracking a handful of major loci as marker-assisted selection does.

The researchers compared two broad analytical frameworks. The first was a conventional two-step approach: best linear unbiased estimators were computed for each line across all environments, and those summary values then served as response variables for seven genomic prediction models, including ridge regression BLUP, Bayesian ridge regression, Bayesian LASSO, BayesA, BayesB, BayesC, and reproducing kernel Hilbert space models. In five-fold cross-validation repeated over 100 cycles, mean predictive abilities ranged from 0.4 to 0.7, with mix tolerance and flour yield performing best and the low-heritability wheat ash content performing worst. Strikingly, the choice of model mattered far less than the trait itself; within any given trait, the seven models were nearly indistinguishable.

The second framework was a single-step reaction norm model, an extension of the GBLUP approach that feeds raw phenotypic observations and marker data into one unified model. Its key innovation is an explicit genotype-by-environment interaction term, built from covariance matrices that combine the genomic relationship matrix with environmental incidence matrices. This allows the model to predict how a specific line will perform in a specific environment, mimicking a scenario in which a breeder phenotypes only a few check varieties in a trial and predicts the rest. In cross-validation, the median predictive ability within location-year combinations tracked the heritability of each trait almost exactly, with bake time, flour yield, mix time, and single kernel hardness approaching 0.8.

The team also tested whether incorporating known major genes as fixed effects could sharpen predictions. Wheat end-use quality is strongly influenced by seed protein families, including glutenins, gliadins, puroindolines, purothionins, avenin-like proteins, purinins, triticins, and amylase-trypsin inhibitors. Markers within one megabase of these genes were pulled out of the random-effect marker matrix and treated as fixed effects, either individually, as principal components of the candidate marker set, or as markers discovered by genome-wide association studies run within each training fold. None of these strategies improved predictive ability, a result the authors attribute to the fact that the genome-wide models were already capturing the effects of these loci implicitly.

One cautionary finding deserves wide attention. When the researchers included GWAS markers identified on the full dataset, spanning both training and validation material, predictive ability jumped by roughly one standard deviation across all traits. That apparent gain was an artifact of data leakage, sometimes called the inside trading effect, in which information from the validation set contaminates model fitting. The demonstration is a timely reminder for the genomics community that benchmarking practices matter: fixed-effect markers must be identified strictly within training data, or reported accuracies will be silently inflated.

The most demanding test was leave-one-year-out validation, in which all experimental lines from an entire year were withheld and predicted from the remaining eleven years of data. Using a predictive ability threshold of 0.3 as the boundary between useful and uninformative predictions, five traits, namely bake time, loaf volume, mix time, mix tolerance, and single kernel hardness, cleared the bar in all thirteen years. Wheat ash content was the only trait that consistently fell short. In the forward prediction of 2022, the most recent year, the reproducing kernel Hilbert space model showed a discernible edge for grain and flour protein content, though a gap in genotyping for the 2021 preliminary yield trial lines likely dampened overall performance in that final year.

The practical implications reach well beyond Montana. Because the two-step and single-step methods answer different questions, one estimating a line’s overall breeding value across environments, the other predicting its phenotype in a specific environment, breeders can deploy them at different stages of the pipeline. By selecting on genomic predictions before expensive quality testing is possible, programs can increase selection intensity for end-use quality and accelerate genetic gain, ensuring that the bread wheat reaching global markets continues to meet the exacting standards that millers, bakers, and consumers demand. As training datasets accumulate and reference genomes improve, the authors expect these approaches to become routine tools for keeping one of the world’s most important staple crops a step ahead.

Subject of Research: Genomic selection models for predicting end-use quality traits in hard red spring wheat breeding

Article Title: Evaluating reaction norm and fixed effect models for genomic selection of end-use quality in wheat

Article References: Lile, J., Lachowiec, J., Fiedler, J. D., & Cook, J. P. (2026). Evaluating reaction norm and fixed effect models for genomic selection of end-use quality in wheat. Theoretical and Applied Genetics, 139(10), Article 293. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00122-026-05394-4

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s00122-026-05394-4

Keywords: genomic selection, wheat, end-use quality, hard red spring wheat, reaction norm model, genotype-by-environment interaction, fixed effects, GWAS, predictive ability, breeding, baking quality, GBLUP