Bera, I.; O’Sullivan, M.; Flynn, D.; Shields, D.C. Relationship between Protein Digestibility and the Proteolysis of Legume Proteins during Seed Germination. Molecules2023, 28, 3204.
Bera, I.; O’Sullivan, M.; Flynn, D.; Shields, D.C. Relationship between Protein Digestibility and the Proteolysis of Legume Proteins during Seed Germination. Molecules 2023, 28, 3204.
Bera, I.; O’Sullivan, M.; Flynn, D.; Shields, D.C. Relationship between Protein Digestibility and the Proteolysis of Legume Proteins during Seed Germination. Molecules2023, 28, 3204.
Bera, I.; O’Sullivan, M.; Flynn, D.; Shields, D.C. Relationship between Protein Digestibility and the Proteolysis of Legume Proteins during Seed Germination. Molecules 2023, 28, 3204.
Abstract
Legume seed protein is an important source of nutrition, but it is less digestible than animal protein. Poor protein digestibility in legume seeds and seedlings may partly reflect defences against herbivores. Protein changes during germination typically increase proteolysis and digestibility, by lowering the levels of anti-nutrient protease inhibitors, activating proteases, and breaking down storage proteins (including allergens). Germinating legume sprouts also show striking increases in free amino acids (especially asparagine), but their roles in host defence or other processes are not known. While the net effect of germination is generally to increase the digestibility of legume seed proteins, the extent of improvement in digestibility is species and strain dependent. Further research is needed to highlight which changes contribute the most to improved digestibility of sprouted seeds. Such knowledge could guide the selection of varieties that are more digestible, and also guide the development of food preparations that are more digestible, potentially combining germination with other factors altering digestibility, such as heating and fermentation. Techniques to characterize the shifts in protein make-up, activity and degradation during germination need to draw on traditional analytical approaches, complemented by proteomic and peptidomic analysis of mass spectrometry identified peptide breakdown products.
Keywords
Plant proteins; legumes; protein digestibility; germination; peptidomics; proteomics
Subject
Biology and Life Sciences, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
