A COMPARISON OF SOME PROPERTIES OF VICILIN AND LEGUMIN ISOLATED FROM SEEDS OF PISUM SATIVUM VICIA FABA AND CICER ARIETINUM

A comparison has been made of the globulins, vicilin and legumin, prepared by isoelectric precipitation, of the seeds of three species of the Vicieae, namely Pisum sativum, Vicia faba and Cicer arietinum. Their amino acid composition, band patterns after electrophoresis upon polacrylamide‐urea gels, fingerprint patterns of their tryptic digests and N‐terminal amino acids were compared. Considerable portions of the amino acid sequences of vicilin and legumin of Pisum sativum are probably the same or very similar and both proteins consist of a number of sub‐units. Vicia faba and Cicer arietinum also contain two proteins homologous with the vicilin and legumin of Pisum sativum. The homologous proteins of the three species resemble each other more closely than do the vicilin and legumin of any one species. Copyright © 1969, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved