Background:

Survival of plant depends on germination and the allocation of reserve substances from the seed to the seedling.

Question/hypothesis:

Have biomass partitioning and reserve substances concentration in seeds and seedlings; enzymes and amyloplast number in cotyledons of Phaseolus coccineus been modified by the domestication process?

Study site and years of study:

The experiments were carried out in the dark room and the laboratory of the Botany Department, Campus Montecillo, Postgraduate College in 2017 and 2018.

Methods:

The biomass was determined by the conventional method and the concentration of starch, glucose, fructose and sucrose by enzymatic hydrolysis in embryos and seedlings of wild and domesticated runner beans. In germinated seeds cotyledons, the number of amyloplasts was quantified and the presence of enzymes was detected by means of a discontinuous native acrylamide gel with potato amylopectin in an electrophoresis chamber.

Results:

The wild P. coccineus seed and seedlings had less biomass in the embryo (91 %), root (93 %) and shoot (87 %), but higher concentration (µmol g-1) of starch (53, 83, 65 %, embryo, root and shoot, respectively), glucose (74, 73 and 3 %), fructose (94, 93 and 29 %) and sucrose (84, 88 and 30 %) than the domesticated ones. Endoamylases, de-branching enzymes and β amylases were observed. Domesticated runner beans had lesser amyloplats than the wild runner beans.

Conclusions:

The biomass, reserve substances metabolism, the enzymes and the number of amyloplasts in cotyledons and seedlings indicate different pattern in the metabolic pathway resulting from the domestication process.

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