| Summary: | As global meat consumption is rising, the negative impact the animal husbandry sector has on the environment will increase. Greenhouse gas emissions have increased by 40 % during the last 200 years, and the animal husbandry sector is today responsible for 18 % of the total greenhouse gas emissions from food production. More environmentally friendly protein sources, such as soy and pea, must therefore be developed. Pisum sativum can (unlike the most popular meat alternative – soy) be grown all over Europe and might thus be a good alternative that allows for locally sourced alternatives to meat protein. Identifying genes with important agricultural properties might aid the development of pea cultivars with a more reliable protein content. One such gene was hypothesised to be the OMT gene, which is strongly expressed during the embryonic development of P. sativum and seems involved in functions such as seed storage and protein synthesis. Thirty-one accessions of P. sativum were tested to see if different improvement types differed from each other regarding protein content and seed weight, but no such differences were found. DNA was extracted from all accessions, sequenced, and successful sequences were tested to determine if variation in the gene correlated with protein content. Two haplotypes were identified, but there was no correlation between them and protein content found. Based on the results of this study, there is little evidence that the OMT gene correlates with protein content in the studied accessions.
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