Maize protease inhibitor

Aprotinin is a serine protease inhibitor and is used as a therapeutic agent. Aprotinin generated in transgenic maize is functionally and biochemically identical to its native counterpart and can be efficiently recovered from seed. 

Potatoes contain a protease inhibitor that reduces the digestibility not only of potato protein but also of protein in other components of the diet. The inhibitor is destroyed by heating it is normal practice to cook potatoes for pigs and poultry, although cooking is unnecessary for ruminants, presumably because the inhibitor is destroyed in the rumen. For pigs and poultry the ME value of cooked potatoes is similar to that of maize, about 14-15 MJ/kg DM. 

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