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Science & TechClimate

More CO2 in the air changes wheat's proteins and baking quality, study finds

Field trials by German researchers on ten winter wheat varieties found that carbon dioxide levels expected by mid-century lowered gluten in most of them, with big differences between varieties.

From the editorial desk · Freising, GermanyPublished
Ears of winter wheat in a field (file photo)
Ears of winter wheat in a field (file photo)Photo: David Wright / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0

Key points

  1. Wheat grown at 546 ppm of CO2 had less gluten and more of a group of proteins called ATIs.
  2. Grain protein fell by 1.9% to 10.3% in nine of the ten varieties tested.
  3. Some varieties were far more sensitive than others to the extra CO2.

Wheat grown in air with as much carbon dioxide as the world may have by the middle of the century has a different mix of proteins, with less gluten and poorer baking quality in most varieties, according to a study by German researchers.

The team, led from the Leibniz Institute for Food Systems Biology at the Technical University of Munich in Freising, grew ten winter wheat varieties in field conditions. Some plots were kept at 546 parts per million of CO2, the rest at today’s levels. The results were published in the journal Food Chemistry.

Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has risen from about 340 ppm in 1980 to about 425 ppm in 2024, and could reach about 600 ppm by 2050 depending on how economies develop, the institute said.

Under higher CO2, a group of proteins called amylase/trypsin inhibitors (ATIs) generally increased, while gluten proteins, puroindolines and some peptides linked to coeliac disease generally fell. Lower gluten was tied to poorer baking quality. Total grain protein dropped by between 1.9% and 10.3% in nine varieties and rose by 2.7% in one, Hyvega.

“However, the extent of these changes depended largely on the specific wheat cultivar,” said Sabrina Geisslitz, the study’s principal investigator. Asory, Campesino, LG Initial and Moschus were sensitive on every measure, while Apostel and KWS Emerick held up comparatively well.

The researchers said the shifts could matter for how well people tolerate wheat products, but stopped short of firm conclusions. Katharina Scherf, who heads the institute’s food biopolymer chemistry group, said “further studies are needed to clarify the actual biological and immunological significance of these differences.”

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