**Development of Transgenic Sorghum Plants with Improved** *In Vitro* **Kafirin Digestibility Improved** *In Vitro* **Kafirin Digestibility**

**Development of Transgenic Sorghum Plants with** 

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.69973

Lev A. Elkonin, Julia V. Italyanskaya, Valery M. Panin and Nikolai Yu. Selivanov Valery M. Panin and Nikolai Yu. Selivanov Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

Lev A. Elkonin, Julia V. Italyanskaya,

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.69973

#### **Abstract**

Improvement of nutritional value of crops is one of the main goals of plant biotechnology. These studies are extremely important for sorghum—a unique drought‐tolerant cereal crop that is of special importance for sustainable grain production in the arid regions. The major cause of relatively low nutritive value of sorghum grain is the resistance of one of its seed storage proteins, γ‐kafirin, to protease digestion. Using *Agrobacterium*‐ mediated genetic transformation, we have obtained transgenic sorghum plants harbor‐ ing a genetic construct for RNA interference (RNAi) silencing of the γ‐kafirin gene. In T1 generation, transgenic plants with modified endosperm texture were found. These plants had lowered level of the 28‐kDa γ‐kafirin protein and kafirin oligomers, which are formed by natural kafirin polymerization. *In vitro* protein digestibility analysis showed that the amount of undigested protein in transgenic plants was reduced by 2.9–3.2 times, in comparison with the original line, the digestibility index reached 85–88% (60% in the original line). HPLC analysis showed that total amino acid content in transgenic plants was reduced, while the lysine proportion was increased by 1.6–1.7 times. PCR analysis confirmed inheritance of the genetic construct up to T<sup>4</sup> generation.

**Keywords:** transgenic plants, *Agrobacterium*‐mediated genetic transformation, gamma‐kafirin, *in vitro* protein digestibility, RNA silencing, endosperm, *Sorghum bicolor* (L.) Moench
