Cereal Chem 42:452 - 461.  |  VIEW ARTICLE

Zein: A Heterogeneous Protein Containing Disulfide-Linked Aggregates.

J. E. Turner, J. A. Boundy, and R. J. Dimler. Copyright 1965 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

Agar and starch gel electrophoresis showed that zein is heterogeneous and also that this prolamine of corn, as it exists naturally, contains disulfide-linked aggregates. Native zein exhibited several mobile components and a fraction that did not migrate into the gel upon electrophoresis. All components were mobile following reduction of disulfide bonds. Reduction of native zein also lowered the weight-average molecular weight from 44,000 to 21,000. The mobile fraction was identical to alpha zein, a fraction soluble in 95% ethanol. The immobile fraction resembled beta zein, which is insoluble in 95% ethanol.