ABSTRACT
The processing properties of seeds for many food uses, including the production of bread, pasta and other foods from wheat, are largely determined by the amount and properties of the storage proteins. Similarly, the low levels of lysine and certain other essential amino acids in cereal grains and of sulphur-containing amino acids in legume seeds limit their nutritional quality as feed for monogastric livestock. The major storage proteins present in seeds are of four types, 7S globulins, 11S globulins, 2S albumins and prolamins, which differ in their compositions and properties. Genetic engineering provides an opportunity to explore and manipulate the structures, compositions and functional properties of these proteins to improve their quality for traditional end uses and to introduce new properties for novel applications. In the present chapter opportunities for improving the nutritional and processing properties of cereals and legumes are discussed in relation to our current knowledge of the factors that affect the expression levels of transgenes and the stability and accumulation of transgene products.
