The majority of the total phosphorus in seeds is stored in the form of phytate, a mixed-cation sait of phytic acid. Phytate is not weii digested by humans and monogastric animais. Phosphorus excretion is one of the major poliutants of surface waters in many locations in the worid. important micronutrients such as iron and zinc bound to phytate are aiso excreted, potentiaiiy leading to micronutrient deficiencies. Low-phytate mutants have been developed in several crop species as one strategy to deal with the phytate probiem. The objective of this research was the deveiopment of low-phytate pea (Pisum sativum L.) using chemical mutagenesis of cultivar CDC Bronco, and the agronomic characterization of two resulting lines. In these lines, phytate phosphorus concentration was reduced by approximateiy 60%, with a compensating increase in inorganic phosphorus. The lowphytate lines were similar in agronomic performance to CDC Bronco, except for somewhat slower time to flowering and maturity, slightly lower seed weight, and slightly lower grain yield. Low-phytate field pea should have potential to improve phosphorus and micronutrient bioavailability in human and animal diets.

The aim of this study was to evaluate a set of recombinant inbred lines (RILs) for agronomic and physiological traits under drought conditions and to locate quantitative trait loci (QTL) associated with them. This study used a RIL population derived from a cross between drought tolerant (ILC 588) and susceptible (ILC 3279) genotypes. The population consisting of 155 RILs was grown under drought conditions in the field at Tel Hadya, Syria, in 2006 and 2007 and at Breda, Syria, in 2007. A genetic map consisting of eight linkage groups was developed using 97 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. The results revealed that high harvest index (HI), early flowering, and early maturity were the important attributes contributing to higher grain yield under drought. Higher stomatal conductance (gs) and cooler canopies (canopy temperature minus air temperature [Tc–Ta]) can also lead to better performance under drought conditions. Quantitative trait locus analysis identified 15 genomic regions significantly associated with various traits affecting drought tolerance in chickpea. Important QTL detected in this study included two QTL for HI explaining 38% of the total phenotypic variability of the trait, four QTL for flowering explaining 45%, and three QTL for maturity explaining 52% on a cumulative basis. Three QTL for gs and six QTL for Tc–Ta also detected explained 7 to 15% phenotypic variability individually. Two QTL (Q3‐1 and Q1‐1) on linkage group 3 (LG3) and LG1 showed effects on many traits related to drought. Hence, these regions can be further explored in future drought studies.

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An Acacia victoriae trypsin inhibitor (AvTI) was purified from the seeds of prickly wattle (A. victoriae Bentham) by salt precipitation, ion exchange, and gel filtration chromatography and then characterized by electrophoresis and N-terminal amino acid sequencing. AvTI had a specific activity of 138.99 trypsin inhibitor units per milligram (TIU mg(-1)), which was 21-fold higher than that of the salt precipitate. A molecular mass of 13 kDa was estimated by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) under reducing conditions, which also indicated that AvTI may consist of two polypeptide chains linked by at least one disulfide bond. Although only a single peak was resolved by ion exchange and reverse phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC), native-PAGE and isoelectric focusing revealed the presence of three isoforms possessing acidic pI values of 5.13, 4.76, and 4.27, respectively. N-Terminal amino acid sequencing analysis of native and reduced AvTI showed two sequences with a high degree of homology with a typical Kunitz-type trypsin inhibitor. All isoforms had considerable trypsin inhibitory activity but showed relatively very low inhibition against alpha-chymotrypsin.