Abstract

CHIQUITO-ALMANZA, Elizabeth et al. Kafirins, key proteins to improve digestibility and proteic quality of sorghum grain. Rev. Mex. Cienc. Agríc [online]. 2011, vol.2, n.2, pp.235-248. ISSN 2007-0934.

Sorghum is a basic food in several countries of Africa and Asia. However, its grain is deficient in lysine and its proteic quality diminishes when is cooked. Attempts to confer proteic quality to sorghum grain have not satisfed the nutritional requirements, and biotechnical alternatives have been focused to proteins' heterologous expression, without taking into account to increase proteic digestibility. Increment of lysine content in QPM corn and gene silencing of α-zeins in corn, suggest that modification of expression of kafirins, a prolamin family of sorghum homologous to corn zeins, allows to increase lysin content and the proteic digestibility of sorghum grain. In this revision basic issues of kafirins classification are discussed, their homology with corn zeins, and their contribution in quality and proteic digestibility of sorghum grain. The objective of this work is to support the hypothesis that modification of kafirins expression by means of gene silencing is key strategy to improve nutritious value in sorghum grain, study was carried out during 2009 and 2010.

Keywords : Sorghum bicolor L. Moench; digestibility; kafirins; prolamins; proteic quality.

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