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The Prolamins of Sorghum, Coix and Millets

  • Chapter
Seed Proteins

Abstract

In addition to maize, other tropical cereals such as sorghum, Coix and millets should also be considered as interesting resources for seed protein studies. Sorghum and Coix are panicoid cereals, which belong to the tribes Andropogonea and Maydeae, respectively. Sorghum was originally domesticated in Africa south of Sahara in ancient times and subsequently spread into other tropical regions. In the FAO report for 1994, sorghum was ranked fifth among the most important cereal crops of the world after wheat, rice, maize and barley, in both total planted area and production. Millets include various grass species grown as food and forage crops in Africa and India and as high quality forage crops in the USA, South America and Australia. The millet species belong to several genera of the Gramineae distributed in the sub-families Panicoideae (Panicum, Setaria, Echinochloa, Pennisetum, Paspalum) and Chloridoideae (Eleusine and Eragrostis). The origins of millet species are very diverse. Echinochloa millets were domesticated in Japan and Southwest Asia some 4, 000 years ago (Hilu, 1994). Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) was probably domesticated 5000 years ago in the savanna south of the Sahara and west of the Nile, subsequently spreading to India some 3, 000 years ago (Andrews and Kumar, 1992). Tef (Eragrostis tef), was domesticated in Ethiopia where it remains as an mportant crop until present times (Bekele et al., 1995). Coix, commonly known as Job’s tears, is a wild grass native to India, Burma, China, and Malaysia. It was grown extensively in South Asia before maize became popular as an agricultural crop (Arora, 1977). The Coix grain has been used as a food source for humans and livestock, but it’s use declined because it’s agronomic performance competes poorly with maize and sorghum. However, it has been utilized locally for the production of alcoholic beverages and as a medicinal plant (Arora, 1977).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Biologia Molecular e Engenharia Genética, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, 13083-970, Campinas, SP, Brazil

    Adilson Leite, Germano Cord Neto, André Luiz Vettore, José Andres Yunes & Paulo Arruda

  2. Departamento de Genética e Evolução, IB, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, 13083-970, Campinas, SP, Brazil

    Paulo Arruda

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  1. Adilson Leite
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  2. Germano Cord Neto
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  3. André Luiz Vettore
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  4. José Andres Yunes
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  5. Paulo Arruda
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Peter R. Shewry Rod Casey

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© 1999 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Leite, A., Neto, G.C., Vettore, A.L., Yunes, J.A., Arruda, P. (1999). The Prolamins of Sorghum, Coix and Millets. In: Shewry, P.R., Casey, R. (eds) Seed Proteins. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4431-5_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4431-5_7

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

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