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Enhancing the Nutritional Quality of Crop Plants: Design, Construction, and Expression of an Artificial Plant Storage Protein Gene

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Book cover Molecular Approaches to Improving Food Quality and Safety

Abstract

The composition of storage proteins, a major food reservoir for the developing seeds, determines the nutritional value of plants and grains that are used as foods for man and domestic animals. The amount of protein varies with genotype or cultivar, but in general, cereals contain 10% of the dry weight of the seed as protein, while in legumes, the protein content varies between 20% and 30% of the dry weight. In many seeds, storage proteins account for 50% or more of the total protein, and thus determine the protein quality of seeds. Each year the total world cereal harvest amounts to some 1700 million tons of grain (Keris et al. 1985). This harvest yields about 85 million tons of cereal storage proteins harvested each year and contributes about 55% of the total protein intake of humans.

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  1. JaeHo Kim
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  2. Selim Cetiner
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  3. Jesse M. Jaynes
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  1. Agricultural Research Service/Southern Regional Research Center, USDA, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

    Deepak Bhatnagar  & Thomas E. Cleveland  & 

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© 1992 Van Nostrand Reinhold

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Kim, J., Cetiner, S., Jaynes, J.M. (1992). Enhancing the Nutritional Quality of Crop Plants: Design, Construction, and Expression of an Artificial Plant Storage Protein Gene. In: Bhatnagar, D., Cleveland, T.E. (eds) Molecular Approaches to Improving Food Quality and Safety. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-8070-2_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-8070-2_1

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