search for the evolutionary roots of the seed storage globulins which include such food proteins as the legume soy protein—the gold standard for plant-based proteins—due to its balanced content of 7S and 11S globulin protein, other beans, the pseudocereals buckwheat, & quinoa, pumpkin seeds, cocoa, coffee, nuts, and the two cereals oats and rice. This search turned up a new realm: that seed storage globulin proteins (7S & 11S), as well as many other non-storage plant proteins {notably germins (G-OXOs), germin-like proteins (GLPs)} and microbial proteins belong to a vast superfamily of proteins dubbed the 'cupin superfamily' of proteins, named on the basis of a conserved beta-barrel fold (cupa the Latin term for a small barrel) originally discovered within germin and germin-like proteins from higher plants. Germin is a monocupin and 7S & 11S are each bicupins. It is a large and functionally immensely diverse 'superfamily' of proteins, numbering in the thousands, that have a common origin and whose evolution can be followed from bacteria to eukaryotes including animals and higher plants. "Cupins" are the most functionally diverse protein superfamily occurring in all spermatophytes (seed-bearing plants). " GLPs, moreover, are now known to be ubiquitous plant proteins, no longer linked only to cereal germination, but involved in plant responses to biotic and abiotic stress. "G-OXOs and GLPs are plant do-all proteins". Germin of the "true cereals" is known as the 'archetypal' member of the cupin superfamily, however, it is not to be considered an empty cask or barrel but a 'jellyroll' jelly roll fold in which six monomer subunits are wrapped in three dimensions to form a barrel shape. This structure accounts for its astonishing 'refractory' nature toward various 'denaturing' agents: all germins share a remarkable stability when subjected to heat, detergents, extreme pH and resistance to broad specificity proteolytic (digestive) enzymes. Seed storage proteins of grasses and cereals belong to the eponymous prolamin superfamily which also includes plant albumins(2S). Prolamin seed storage protein so characteristic of cereals and grasses is not considered very nutritious because of its high content of the amino acid proline which it shares with gelatin and its low content of lysine, a vital amino acid. Germin was initially identified in the early stages of wheat seed germination, thus its name. Domesticated cereals most notably 'hexaploid' bread wheat ('durum' wheat, which is used to make pasta and semolina is tetraploid) was selected by humans for its