Wheat grain texture is critical to end-product quality, with direct effects on milling and baking quality, and producers have exploited the natural hardness or softness of wheat kernels to fill different market niches. The almost invariably hard texture of cereal grains outside the Triticeae tribe (e.g., rice and corn), however, has limited their usefulness and quality both in foods and in other products. On page 162, Krishnamurthy and Giroux describe the production of transgenic rice (Oryzae sativa L.) with softer kernels. Their strategy relied on the observed correlation between softer textured wheat, oats, and barley and the presence of two lipid-binding proteins, puroindolines a and b. By inserting the pinA and pinB genes into rice and assessing their effect on cereal grain texture, they showed that grain hardness was reduced in transgenic rice plants expressing PINA and PINB. Flour milled from the softer grains had reduced starch damage and an increased percentage of fine flour particles.