Genotype-Driven Proteomic Diversity in Macadamia Nuts: Implications for Allergenicity, Nutritional Quality, and Breeding Strategies.

Macadamia nuts are valued for their nutritional content, yet little is known about the factors that affect nut quality or the genetic contributions of parental lines. This study optimized a protein extraction protocol for lipid-rich macadamia nuts and applied SDS-PAGE and mass spectrometry-based proteomics to characterize nuts with known parental origin. A total of 431 high-confidence proteins were identified, with seed storage proteins (SSPs), primarily vicilin- and legumin-like globulins, comprising nearly 50% of total protein abundance.