A three-dimensional model of curculin, a sweet-tasting and taste-modifying protein from the fruits of Curculigo latifolia, was built from the X-ray coordinates of GNA, a mannose-binding lectin from snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis). The three mannose-binding sites present in GNA were found in curculin
A gene encoding a globulin from a major taro (Colocasia esculenta L. Schott) corm protein family, tarin (G1, ca. 28 kDa) was isolated from a lambda Charon 35 library, using a cDNA derived from a highly abundant corm-specific mRNA, as probe. The gene, named tar1, and the corresponding cDNA were