Gluten protein functionality remains the basis of any understanding of the
end-product quality of wheat flours. Information about this functionality h
as been obtained by both in vivo and in vitro studies. Recent advances incl
ude structure/function studies of deletion mutants and transformed genotype
s, where the genes incorporated were both naturally occurring genes and gen
es which have been desired to provide specific structural features. The con
tributions of these specific changes in structure to the rheology of the re
sulting doughs allow insight into the underlying physical processes that de
termine dough and end-product properties.