Localisation of Storage Reserves in Developing Seeds of Pongamia pinnata (L.) Pierre, a Potential Agroforestry Tree

Abstract

Pongamia pinnata is an important oil yielding perennial tree species. The aim of the present study was to document the histological and ultrastructural change that is occurring during pongamia seed development. The seeds were sampled at five stages of development at intervals of 3 weeks starting from 30 weeks after flowering up to 42 weeks. The seed development was followed microscopically using toluidine blue staining. The seed coat was made up of an external layer of palisade cells, an internal layer of hourglass cells followed by a parenchymatous cell layer and aleurone cell layer. The seed reserve compounds such as polysaccharides, proteins and starch showed distinct histochemical characterisation. Lignin was mainly found in the seed coat cell layers, while polysaccharides, proteins and starch granules in the cotyledon cells. The ultrastructural studies showed marked cellular changes during the seed development. The cell size varied from 9.4 to 78 μm during the seed development. The number of oil bodies per cell ranged from 200 to 300 at 42 weeks after flowering. Protein storage vacuoles were observed during the later stages of seed development. The plastids contained electron‐dense starch granules. The seeds harvested after 42 weeks after flowering had maximum physiological maturity with high oil content and other seed reserve materials. This basic knowledge on pongamia seed development could invariably be used for further understanding of biochemical changes that might be involved in the biosynthetic pathway of oil.

Unravelling molecular mechanisms from floral initiation to lipid biosynthesis in a promising biofuel tree species, Pongamia pinnata using transcriptome analysis

“…At 175 DAF, the cotyledon development and oil biosynthesis go at constant pace till maturity (300 DAF). Many other Pongamia accessions belonging to different geographical locations had shown similar patterns of oil accumulation during seed development 20 44 . During FA biosynthesis, plastidial acetyl CoA and malonyl CoA are converted into long-chain acyl-ACP by a series of reactions involving certain enzymes with ACP as a cofactor.…”