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 fat ty acid composition over a period of 132 h. The lipid content decrease d drastically during germination. More drastic changes in lipid consti tuents were observed for light-grown seedlings than for dark-grown one s. 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 increa se in glycolipid (GL) content. Triacyl glycerol content decreased noti ceably during germination while other NPL tended to increase. Among th e 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 rapid ly at early germination only to increase equally rapidly later on. Amo ng the phospholipids (PL), only phosphatidic acid showed a marked incr ease during germination, under both growth conditions, while others te nded to decrease in varying degrees. The changing patterns of GL and P L during germination seem to follow the pattern of the formation of ph otosynthetic tissues and the metabolic conversion of PL. The major fat ty acids of the three lipid groups, which more or less decreased or in creased 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.