Amino acid sequence alignment of cereal storage proteins

AbstractAn alignment is presented of portions of the amino acid sequences of two gliadins and a glutenin from wheat and of a barley hordein. The two gliadins exhibit similarity over much of their sequences. The glutenin is similar in sequence to the gliadins only over a restricted region. Our analysis of the aligned sequences leads us to suggest the word ‘modular’ to describe the architecture of these proteins. The term is intended to connote the joining together, in the course of evolution, of several units (modules) of distinctive character, under a set of rules that allows considerable flexibility in the arrangement of modules within a molecule