Author Identifier (ORCID)
Abstract
Background: Oats (Avena sativa L.) are a rapidly expanding ingredient in plant-based beverages, snacks and fermented products, where texture, flavour, aroma and colour shape consumer acceptance. A comparatively high lipid content (2–10% w/w) reduces milling efficiency and predisposes products to oxidative rancidity, while textural variation, bitterness and colour instability further constrain product development. The molecular basis for these processing and sensory challenges lies in the globulin-dominant grain proteome.
Scope and approach: This review synthesises advances in liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) proteomics to quantitatively profile the four protein groups shaping oat sensory quality: storage, grain softness-related, lipid-associated, and metabolic and enzymatic proteins. It evaluates how these systems remodel under processing (kilning, roasting, extrusion, fermentation and storage) and how multi-omics integration links proteomic data to genomic, lipidomic, metabolomic and volatilomic datasets.
Key findings and conclusions: Four candidate protein measures are highlighted as priorities for validation: the globulin-to-avenin ratio (texture and viscosity), vromindoline (VIN) abundance (grain softness), the oleosin-to-lipase ratio (oxidative stability and flavour shelf-life) and the branched-chain aminotransferase-to-alcohol dehydrogenase (BCAT-to-ADH) balance (malty-versus-fruity aroma). Two deployment routes are proposed: mapping candidate protein measures to protein quantitative trait loci (pQTL) for conversion to high-throughput DNA assays at breeding scale, and deploying targeted proteomics panels for batch-level process control. Integrating proteomics with pan-genome-resolved isoforms and multi-omics datasets advances oat sensory science from descriptive correlation towards a proteomics-informed framework, pending multi-environment, product-level and sensory validation.
Keywords
candidate protein measures, flavour, multi-omics integration, pQTL mapping, shelf-life, texture
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of Publication
12-1-2026
Article Number
106112
ISSN
09242244
Volume
178
Publication Title
Trends in Food Science & Technology
Publisher
Elsevier
School
Centre of Crops and Horticulture Analytics for Nutrition and Climate Excellence / School of Science / Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Innovations in Peptide and Protein Science
Funding Information
Oat Grain Quality Consortium – Program 2 is an investment of the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) [IGP2401-001RTX]. It is led by InterGrain Pty Ltd in collaboration with Edith Cowan University, School of Science, Centre of Crops and Horticulture Analytics for Nutrition and Climate Excellence (CHANCE) and the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Innovations in Peptide and Protein Science (ARC CoE CIPPS) [CE200100012].
Funding received from the Australian Research Council (ARC)
CE200100012
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
O’Lone, C. E., Juhász, A., Bose, U., Fenton, H., Ganesalingam, D., Rattey, A., & Colgrave, M. L. (2026). From proteome to palate: proteomics-led insights into sensory quality in oats (Avena sativa L.). Trends in Food Science & Technology, 178, Article 106112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tifs.2026.106112