Improvement of the nutritional quality of legume seed storage proteins by molecular breeding

Legume seeds contain a large amount of proteins and are one of the essential protein sources for humans and animals. However, the protein, in legume seeds is usually poor in sulfur-containing amino acids, and its nutritional value is lower than the protein from animal sources. Recently plant breeding has become available by the introduction of molecular biology, and a technique, called molecular breeding, was applied to the production of legume seeds that contain proteins with high nutritional quality. This review describes the expression of legume seed protein genes and the transformation of legume plants. Approaches to improve the legume seed storage protein will be discussed.