Physical properties of zein networks treated with microbial transglutaminase

•Investigated microbial transglutaminase to increase yield strength of zein networks.•Crosslinking was not observed in zein networks by SDS-PAGE.•Treatment caused zein networks to be tougher and more brittle.•Results suggest physical properties of zein networks depend on non-covalent bonding. Potential improvements to the physical properties of brittle, self-assembled zein networks through microbial transglutaminase crosslinking were investigated. The formation of crosslinked heteropolymers was also explored with networks containing zein and either soy or pea protein isolates as supplemented lysine sources. The observed SDS-PAGE bands did not show any evidence of zein crosslinking. Soy and pea isolates underwent extensive crosslinking on their own, but heteropolymers were not observed in multiprotein networks with zein. Despite the lack of crosslinking observed, rheological and textural analysis revealed that the enzymatic treatment of zein produced a weaker, more brittle structure. With no significant changes in secondary structure, determined through FTIR, the observed behaviour was primarily attributed to glutamine deamidation by microbial transglutaminase in the absence of sufficient lysine through changes to the hydrophobicity of the protein such that non-covalent bonding within network was modified.