Genetics and molecular biology of barley hordeins

The World's major crops in terms of dry matter production are cereals, the cultivated members of the family Gramineae. The cereals provide the bulk of the protein and carbohydrate for humans and animals. The seed storage proteins are of particular importance because they determine not only the total protein content of the seed, but also its quality for various end uses. This paper presents an overview of the molecular biology, genetic polymorphism and properties of barley storage proteins -hordeins. The basic aim was to sistematize already published data including our results, and to point out the important role of hordeins in barley cultivar identification.