Monosaccharides bearing specific functional groups vary in their reactivity during wet-heating Maillard reaction(MR) conjugation with casein (CN), leading to conjugates with distinct physicochemical properties. In this study, CN was conjugated with D-tagatose (DT) or N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) via a wet-heating MR to prepare two water-soluble conjugates: DT:CN (D:C) and GlcNAc:CN (G:C). Systematically investigating the characterize properties and structures of these conjugates and emulsion stabilization mechanisms. The conjugates achieved grafting degrees of 20.0 % (D:C) and 19.7 % (G:C) under optimized MR conditions, with SDS-PAGE and FT-IR confirming covalent macromolecular conjugation. Additionally, circular dichroism (CD) analysis revealed a remarkable enhancement in α-helix content to about 1.6 times that of native CN, accompanied by 6–10°C increases in denaturation temperature (Td), demonstrating thermally stabilized architectures. Structural modifications induced significant physicochemical improvements: particle size reduces by nearly half, Zeta-potential significantly increases, and surface hydrophobicity reduced by 72.3 % (D:C) and 34.5 % (G:C). Scanning electron microscopy further revealed optimized film-forming capabilities in conjugates. As emulsifiers, the modified proteins reduced emulsion droplet sizes by over 50 % while increasing surface charges by 53.4 % (D:C) and 12.2 % (G:C), respectively, indicating superior emulsification performance. Thus, the information obtained in this study can enrich the theoretical framework of the interaction between proteins and different monosaccharides structures.
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