Study of the structure and properties of native and hydrothermally processed wild-type, lam and r variant pea starches that affect amylolysis of these starches.

Starches from WT, lam, and r pea mutants differing in amylopectin/amylose contents (70, 90, and 28% amylopectin, respectively) were used in kinetic studies of pancreatic α-amylase action at 37 °C and for investigations of their supramolecular structure and physicochemical properties during heating. For WT and lam starches, amylase accessibility and catalytic efficiencies (CE) increased following hydrothermal processing up to 100 °C. Accessibility changed relatively less in r during heating with increasing K(m) between 60-90 °C. Limiting values of K(m) after gelatinization were very similar for all three mutants, indicating that relative proportions of amylose/amylopectin have little influence on amylase accessibility once ordered structures are lost. For WT and lam, increases in enzyme accessibility and CE paralleled a rise in amorphous content. It is suggested that the complex behavior for r resulted from amylose gel formation between 60-90 °C. Amorphous amylopectin seems a better substrate for amylase than amorphous amylose.