Maize Endosperm Protein Extraction and Analysis

Abstract

Alcohol-solubility is the most characteristic feature of the zein proteins, the major storage protein in maize. Using sodium borate buffer system with added reducing agent, total proteins are isolated, and zein proteins are separated from non-zein proteins. The extraction effect is intuitive on a SDS-PAGE isolation system. In addition, a simple and rapid approach to extract zeins is introduced, taking full advantage of alcohol-solubility of zeins directly.