CHANGES IN LIPID-CONTENT AND COMPOSITION DURING GERMINATION OF GROUNDNUTS

The cotyledons of two varieties of germinating groundnut seeds (Runner and Bunch) were analysed periodically for their lipid content and fatty acid composition over a period of 132 h. The lipid content decreased drastically during germination. More drastic changes in lipid constituents were observed for light-grown seedlings than for dark-grown ones. In general, the non-polar lipids (NPL) were metabolised faster than the polar ones (P > 0.05) especially in those seeds grown in the dark. The rate of decrease in NPL content almost paralleled that of increase in glycolipid (GL) content. Triacyl glycerol content decreased noticeably during germination while other NPL tended to increase. Among the GL, sterylglucoside increased rapidly during early germination under darkness, only to decrease steadily thereafter. A converse effect was observed for acyl sterylglucoside which, in the dark, decreased rapidly at early germination only to increase equally rapidly later on. Among the phospholipids (PL), only phosphatidic acid showed a marked increase during germination, under both growth conditions, while others tended to decrease in varying degrees. The changing patterns of GL and PL during germination seem to follow the pattern of the formation of photosynthetic tissues and the metabolic conversion of PL. The major fatty acids of the three lipid groups, which more or less decreased or increased in varying degrees with germination in light-grown seeds were oleic, linoleic, palmitic, stearic, arachidic and lignoceric acids in decreasing order of prominence at early germination.