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Isolation and Characterization of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) Seed Protein Fractions

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Abstract

Proteins of ground chickpea seeds were extracted with sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution and precipitated with addition of acid (isoelectric precipitate (C-IP)) and by cryoprecipitation (cryoprecipitate (C-CP)). The protein isolates were characterized by Native PAGE, sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) and electrospray-ionization mass spectrometry (ESI/MS). Both the isoelectric precipitate and cryoprecipitate contained the globulin protein 11S legumins and 7S vicilins as the major protein fractions and 2S albumin proteins as a minor protein fraction. The major subunits of RP-HPLC protein fractions from both cryoprecipitate and isoelectric precipitate were found to contain subunits of both legumins and vicilins. SDS-PAGE identified legumin α-subunits with MW 40.6 and 39.5 kDa and legumin β- subunits with MW 23.5 and 22.5 kDa, and vicilin subunits with MW 70.2, 50.7, 35.0, 33.6, 18.9 and 15.5 kDa. ESI-MS molecular weights 35,366, 35,268 and 14,648 Da are likely vicilin subunits while the 24,894 Da is a legumin β-subunit.

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Acknowledgement

The authors acknowledge the assistance from Ms. Beata Usakiewicz with ESI-MS analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Food Science and Agricultural Chemistry, McGill University, Macdonald Campus, 21,111 Lakeshore Road, Ste-Anne de Bellevue, Quebec, Canada, H9X 3V9

    Yu-Wei Chang, Inteaz Alli & Aline T. Molina

  2. National Research Council of Canada, Biotechnology Research Institute, 6100 Royalmount Avenue, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H4P 2R2

    Yasuo Konishi

  3. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 3600 Casavant Boul. West, Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, Canada, J2S 8E3

    Joyce I. Boye

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  1. Yu-Wei Chang
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  2. Inteaz Alli
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  3. Aline T. Molina
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  4. Yasuo Konishi
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  5. Joyce I. Boye
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Correspondence to Inteaz Alli.

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Chang, YW., Alli, I., Molina, A.T. et al. Isolation and Characterization of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) Seed Protein Fractions. Food Bioprocess Technol 5, 618–625 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11947-009-0303-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11947-009-0303-y

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