What kind of protein is crambin?
Hint 1: Look in the SwissProt file.
The function of this hydrophobic plant seed protein is not known.
(Till about two years ago something very different was written here; but somebody who
doesn't like us :-) reported this error to SwissProt...). Still they don't have it solved
completely.
Two isoforms exists, a major form pl and a minor form si.
Belongs to the plant thionin family (toxin)
And if you look up what are thionins, you see that they are poisonous...
Plant defense protein; plant defends itself against being eaten; or at least have their
essentials digested.
Hint 2: Use BLAST to find the function of crambin-like proteins (but you can also postpone
this untill you have done the introductory exercises on BLAST).
You see a lot of toxins popping up in the hit list.