The chemistry of legume storage proteins

Abstract

Evidence is summarized that provides a structural description of the glycinin subunits from soybeans and the structural genes that produce them. Each subunit consists of an acidic polypeptide component that is linked to a basic one by a single disulphide bond. The subunits are initially produced as a precursor that consists of amino acids for the signal sequence, followed by the sequence for first the acidic and then the basic polypeptide. Comparison of the nucleotide sequence for a subunit gene with the complete prim ary structure of that subunit permits identification of a num ber of post-transcriptional and post-translational events that occur during expression of the gene.