Cloning and Structural Analysis of an Indian Little Millet (Panicum sumatrense) Zein-Like Storage Protein: Implications for Molecular Assembly

Sivakumar, S and Franco, OL and Thayumanavan, B and Murad, AM and Manickam, A and Mohan, A and Mridula, M (2006) Cloning and Structural Analysis of an Indian Little Millet (Panicum sumatrense) Zein-Like Storage Protein: Implications for Molecular Assembly. In: Biochemistry(Moscow), 71 (11). pp. 1183-1191.

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Abstract

Zeins are prolamin storage proteins that accumulate in kernel endosperm of several cereals. For cloning of genes coding for zeinlike proteins that accumulate in enhanced quantities in the filling stages of little millet (Panicum sumatrense Roth.) developing grains, RT-PCR was performed using specific primers. A 750-bp cDNA was directly sequenced and in silico analysis showed high identity degree to αprolamins. This family is composed of zeins from Zea mays, coixins from Coix lachryma-jobi, and $\alpha$ - kafirins from Sorghum bicolor. The putative conserved domain of zeinlike proteins was identified by primary structure comparisons. Furthermore, threading analyses indicated that the millet zeinlike protein forms an anti parallel $\alpha$ - helical hairpin with two opposite surfaces: one hydrophobic and the other hydrophilic that probably could be involved in protein storage assembly. Knowledge about zein-like $\alpha$ - prolamins in little millet will lead to cloning and transfer of this gene to other major food crops, such as cereals and legumes, with inferior nutritional quality for monogastric animals.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Biochemistry(Moscow)
Publisher:	Springer
Additional Information:	Copyright of this article belongs to Springer.
Keywords:	Homology searches;Molecular modeling;Indian little millet;Zein;Phylogenetic relationships
Department/Centre:	Division of Information Sciences (Doesn't exist now) > BioInformatics Centre
Date Deposited:	21 Aug 2007
Last Modified:	19 Sep 2010 04:38
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/11386

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