Revealing the seed proteome of the health benefitting grain amaranth ( Amaranthus cruentus L.)

Amaranth, a staple food source in ancient Aztec, Maya and Inca cultures, has been recognised as a 21st century crop. This superfood, known as Inca wheat, attracts the worldwide attention of researchers and farmers for its superior agronomical and technological properties but especially because of its exceptional nutritive value. A combination of two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE) with MS facilitating the effective differentiation of 13 classes of Amaranthus cruentus L. “Ficha” mature seed proteins was used in the current study. The best resolution results in the 2-DE were obtained using immobilised pH gradients strips with a pH range of 5–8. Out of the 461 spots detected, 249 were successfully identified by LC-MS/MS analysis, making this the most inclusive protein profile of mature amaranth seed. Unknown proteins represented the most abundant class of proteins (59), the second most abundant category was related to energy (46) and then to seed storage proteins (43). These results expand the knowledge of the amaranth seed proteome and it is expected that the data presented here will contribute to further in-depth characterisation of Amaranthus seeds.