A multigene family from cereals which encodes inhibitors of trypsin and heterologous a-amylases

Plant proteins that are inhibitory towards various types of hydrolases from heterologous systems (fungi, insects, vertebrates, etc.) have been extensively studied. The crystallization of a trypsin inhibitor from soybean and of its complex with trypsin, which was carried out by Kunitz over forty years ago, was one major achievement in the early stages of research on protein inhibitors from plants. Recent advances in molecular biology of these inhibitors have greatly increased our knowledge of their structure and "in vitro" properties, and have allowed previously unsuspected relationships between functionally different proteins to be established.