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BACKGROUND In this paper, wheat gluten (WG) was modified by electrochemical deamidation. The effect of electrochemical treatment time on the conformation and functional properties of WG and its mechanism were studied. RESULTS WG demonstrated a maximum deamidation degree 50.94%. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) showed a decrease in α-helix and β-sheets and an increase in β-turns and random coil, indicating that the secondary structure of WG became looser and more disordered, with increased molecular flexibility. Electrochemical deamidation significantly increased the net charge and solubility of WG, the emulsifying activity index (EAI) increased from 8.53 to 15.66 m2 /g, the foaming capacity (FC) increased from 4.55 to 13.72 cm3 , and the water-holding capacity (WHC) and oil-holding capacity (OHC) reached maximums of 8.42 g/g and 7.45 g/g, respectively, at 90 min. CONCLUSION Electrochemical deamidation appears to be a useful technique to improve the processing characteristics of WG. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.