Insights on predominant edible bamboo shoot proteins

Juvenile bamboo shoots have become a US$ 18 billion industry and have lured interest worldwide for its nutritive value and health enhancing properties; making it a suitable candidate for food security. Quantitative analysis revealed that juvenile bamboo shoots are a good source of proteins. However, there is no qualitative analysis describing unique proteins present in the edible bamboo shoots. In order to provide the identity of predominant proteins present in edible bamboo shoot, 13 edible bamboo species were analysed. SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis revealed that high level of peptides polymorphism among 13 bamboo species was within the range of 20.10-15.50 and 66.50-29 KDa. Gel analysis shows that Bambusa oliveriana expressed the maximum number of diverse peptides while Bambusa nutans expressed the minimum number of peptides. Importantly, MS/MS data revealed that abundant peptides in bamboo shoots are histone-like related (H2A, H3 and H4) which generally form the nucleosome core and can participate in defense, stress and development. This study is the first qualitative data on protein components of bamboo shoots which harmonize the existing quantitative data that edible bamboo species as healthy food and a rich source of protein.    Key words: Bamboo shoot proteins, histone-likely proteins, peptide polymorphism, SDS-PAGE-MS/MS, Dendrocalamus hamiltonii.