S. Chakraborty et al., Increased nutritive value of transgenic potato by expressing a nonallergenic seed albumin gene from Amaranthus hypochondriacus, P NAS US, 97(7), 2000, pp. 3724-3729
Citations number
27
Categorie Soggetti
Multidisciplinary
Journal title
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Improvement of nutritive value of crop plants, in particular the amino acid
composition, has been a major long-term goal of plant breeding programs. T
oward this end, we reported earlier the cloning of the seed albumin gene Am
A1 from Amaranthus hypochondriacus, The AmA1 protein is nonallergenic in na
ture and is rich in ail essential amino acids, and the composition correspo
nds well with the World Health Organization standards for optimal human nut
rition. In an attempt to improve the nutritional value of potato, the AmA1
coding sequence was successfully introduced and expressed in tuber-specific
and constitutive manner. There was a striking increase in the growth and p
roduction of tubers in transgenic populations and also of the total protein
content with an increase in most essential amino acids. The expressed prot
ein was localized in the cytoplasm as well as in the vacuole of transgenic
tubers. Thus we have been able to use a seed albumin gene with a well-balan
ced amino acid composition as a donor protein to develop a transgenic crop
plant. The results document, in addition to successful nutritional improvem
ent of potato tubers, the feasibility of genetically modifying other crop p
lants with novel seed protein composition.