How to improve the protein of crops by gene transfer technology?

The basic food of human beings is mainly crops. However, low-protein food can't meet the human demand for protein. At present, the world is short of 40 million tons of protein every year. The protein content of cereal crops in cereals is only about 10%. Protein content of beans is very high, and protein content of soybeans is as high as 40%. If the genes closely related to protein synthesis in beans can be transplanted into other crop cells, the protein content of these crops can be increased. 198 1 June, researchers led by Kemp and Hall of the University of Wisconsin, USA, used gene transfer technology to extract a gene producing protein from kidney bean, spliced it into Ti plasmid vector of rhizobia, and transferred the protein gene of kidney bean into sunflower cells through normal transfer mechanism. Scientists are using tissue culture to regenerate this new type of "sunflower bean" cells into "sunflower bean" plants, and expect it to produce a large number of bean protein.

During the period of 1985, an overseas student from China transplanted the gene mainly storing protein in soybean into a plant called Petunia. Later, he detected the protein of soybean in Petunia seeds. This shows that soybean protein gene controls Petunia to produce soybean protein. These results show that there is a great development prospect to improve the protein content of crops by gene transfer technology.