Mutation in the seed storage protein kafirin creates a high-value food trait in sorghum

Yongrui Wu, Lingling Yuan, Xiaomei Guo, David R. Holding and Joachim Messing ()
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Yongrui Wu: Waksman Institute of Microbiology, Rutgers University
Lingling Yuan: Center for Plant Science Innovation, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, E323 Beadle Center for Biotechnology
Xiaomei Guo: Center for Plant Science Innovation, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, E323 Beadle Center for Biotechnology
David R. Holding: Center for Plant Science Innovation, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, E323 Beadle Center for Biotechnology
Joachim Messing: Waksman Institute of Microbiology, Rutgers University

Nature Communications, 2013, vol. 4, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract Sustainable food production for the earth’s fast-growing population is a major challenge for breeding new high-yielding crops, but enhancing the nutritional quality of staple crops can potentially offset limitations associated with yield increases. Sorghum has immense value as a staple food item for humans in Africa, but it is poorly digested. Although a mutant exhibiting high-protein digestibility and lysine content has market potential, the molecular nature of the mutation is previously unknown. Here, building on knowledge from maize mutants, we take a direct approach and find that the high-digestible sorghum phenotype is tightly linked to a single-point mutation, rendering the signal peptide of a seed storage protein kafirin resistant to processing, indirectly reducing lysine-poor kafirins and thereby increasing lysine-rich proteins in the seeds. These findings indicate that a molecular marker can be used to accelerate introduction of this high nutrition and digestibility trait into different sorghum varieties.

Date: 2013
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms3217

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