ABSTRACT
Seeds are the most imperative parts of a plant and are the next generation as they contain information critical to plant growth and development. Besides, the seeds of several species including soybean and rice, important food crops for human survival, have socio-economic value. Therefore, the study of seed itself is essential. As the seeds are generally rich in proteins, seed proteomics constitutes an important aspect of studying the seed biology. Proteomics of the seed is not an easy task, as there are difficulties in isolating and resolving its proteins due to the presence of high amounts of carbohydrates, oils, secondary metabolites, and so forth in the seeds. Seed proteomics involves the analysis of total protein component during not only development and germination but also under a variety of abiotic and biotic stress conditions. The analyses involve both gel-based and gel-free approaches, standard to any proteomic study. Looking at the differences between dicot (soybean) and monocot (rice) seeds, one can observe a high degree of variability among their proteomes. Nevertheless, they show a common trend of accumulation in the seed storage proteins (SSPs) that accounts for ~50–80% of the total seed proteins. β-conglycinin and glycinin-A in soybean, and glutelin in rice are some of the common examples of SSPs. It has been shown that these SSPs perform anarray of functions, besides acting as storage proteins. SSPs have been shown to be tightly associated with the nutritional quality of the seeds and hence have direct impact on humans and animals. In this chapter, we present an overview of the seed proteomewhile discussing the future perspective of seed proteomics in soybean and rice as examples.
