Functional characterisation of potato starch modified by specific in planta alteration of the amylopectin branching and phosphate substitution

Potato starch was modified in planta by antisense of the starch branching enzyme I (SBE I), and the starch branching enzyme II (SBE II) both simultaneously and individually generating B group starches. Another group of starches, G group starches, was generated by over expression of the E. coli glycogen branching enzyme (E. coli glgB). The content of covalently esterified phosphate increased in the B group starches and decreased in the G group starches. The content of phosphate correlated with length of debranched amylopectin chains measured by HPAEC-PAD, and with gelatinisation mid temperature (T_m) and change in enthalpy (ΔH) measured by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Freeze/thaw stability measured by ¹H pulse-NMR and cohesiveness measured by texture profile analysis (TPA) was in the same range in all starch samples, whereas gel hardness was inversely correlated to phosphate content. No correlations between the pasting properties measured by rapid visco analysis (RVA), gel strength (G′) measured by small deformation oscillation testing or any structural parameter could be revealed. The data set was mined using multivariate statistics. Based on this data starch samples could be separated into the two groups B and G, in accordance with their original transformation strategy.