Chenxi Wan;Licheng Gao;Jiale Wang;Xinhui Lei;Jincai Tao;Baili Feng;Jinfeng Ga

State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Biology for Arid Areas, College of Agronomy, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, Shaanxi, Chin;State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Biology for Arid Areas, College of Agronomy, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, Shaanxi, China

Common buckwheat;Nitrogen fertilizer;Storage protein;Nitrogen metabolism;Grain qualit

Nitrogen (N) fertilization affects grain quality in common buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum Moench). But the effects of N fertilizer on various buckwheat protein parameters are not fully understood. This study aimed to investigate the synthesis, accumulation, and quality of buckwheat protein under four N application rates in the Loess Plateau, China. Optimal N application (180 kg N ha-1) improved yield, agro-nomic traits, and N transport and increased protein yield and protein component accumulation. Prolamin and glutelin accumulation first increased and then decreased with increasing N application. The relation-ships between the contents of protein components and the amount of applied N generally followed quad-ratic functions. Nitrate reductase and glutamine synthetase activities first increased and then decreased with increasing N levels. Optimal N fertilizer increased the waterholding capacity and thermal stability of buckwheat protein and reduced its emulsification capacity, but negligibly changed its oil-absorption capacity. Hydrophobic amino acids and glutelin content were the main factors affecting protein quality. & COPY; 2022 Crop Science Society of China and Institute of Crop Science, CAAS. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co., Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).