A Systematic Proteome Study of Seed Storage Proteins from Two Soybean Genotypes

Soybean seed is a good source of plant protein in human consumables such as baby formula and protein concentrate. The seeds contain an abundance of storage proteins, namely ${\beta}$-conglycin and glycinin that account for ~ 70-80% of the total seed protein content. Proteome profiling has been proved to be an efficient way that can help us to investigate the seed storage proteins. In the present study, the seeds were removed from the pods and the cotylendonary tissues were separated from the testa for proteome analysis in order to investigate the seed storage proteins. A systematic proteome profiling was conducted through one-dimensional gel electrophoresis followed by MALDI-TOF-TOF mass spectrometry in the seeds (cotyledonary tissue) of soybean genotypes. Two dimensional gels stained with CBB, a total of 10 proteins were identified and analyzed using MASCOT search engine according to the similarity of sequences with previously characterized proteins along with the UniProt database. A total of ten proteins such as glycinin Gy4 precursor, glycinin G3 precursor, glycinin G1 precursor, glycinin chain A2B1a precursor, glycinin chain A2B1a precursor were identified in our investigation. However, the glycinin subunit may be considered to play important roles in soybean breeding and biochemical characterization. In addition, the improved technique will be useful to dissect the genetic control of glycinin expression in soybean.