Phytic acid and raffinose series oligosaccharides metabolism in developing chickpea seeds

Phytic acid and raffinose series oligosaccharides (RFOs) have anti-nutritional properties where phytic acid chelates minerals and reduces their bioavailability to humans and other animals, and RFOs cause flatulence. Both phytic acid and RFOs cannot be digested by monogastric animals and are released as pollutant-wastes. Efforts are being made to reduce the contents of these factors without affecting the viability of seeds. This will require a thorough understanding of their metabolism in different crops. Biosynthetic pathways of both metabolites though are interlinked but not well described. This study was made on metabolism of these two contents in developing chickpea (Cicer arietinum L cv GL 769) seeds. In this study, deposition of RFOs was found to occur before deposition of phytic acid. A decline in inorganic phosphorus and increase in phospholipid phosphorus and phytic acid was observed in seeds during development. Acid phosphatase was the major phosphatase in seed as well as podwall and its activity was highest at early stage of development, thereafter it decreased. Partitioning of (14) C label from (14) C-glucose and (14) C-sucrose into RFOs and phytic acid was studied in seeds in presence of inositol, galactose and iositol and galactose, which favored the view that galactinol synthase is not the key enzyme in RFOs synthesis.