Minireview: Analysis of rape seed napin structure and potential roles of the storage protein

Structural and functional data on 2S albumins and particularly rape seed na pins are reviewed and, based on the coordinates of the three-dimensional st ructure of napin-like albumin BnIb, are used to model different rape napins . Surprisingly, the modeled napins, despite great sequence homology, differ in tertiary arrangements of the polypeptide chains. It is proposed that th ese differences in 3D structures of the analyzed rape napins may reflect th eir functions, which may cover many other potential beneficial purposes bes ides simple storage.