Free Amino Acid, Protein and Water Content Changes Associated with Seed Development in Araucaria angustifolia

Protein expression during seed development in Araucaria angustifolia: transient accumulation of class IV chitinases and arabinogalactan proteins

“…from cell division to cell expansion (Dafny-Yelin et al 2005). In the embryogenetic process, cotyledon development is closely related to physiological and biochemical changes (Astarita et al 2003), representing the switch from embryogenesis (cell division) to seed filling (reserve deposition) (Gallardo et al 2003).…”

“…As observed in seeds of Lycopersicon esculentum (Wu et al 2001) and Cucumis melo (Witmer et al 2003), the induction of several proteins exhibiting chitinolytic activity during seed maturation is probably related to a pro-active defense strategy against pathogen attack. During seed maturation in A. angustifolia, zygotic embryos and megagametophytes accumulate water, lipids, proteins, and carbohydrates (Astarita et al 2003, Panza et al 2002 thus becoming an attractive target for microbial invasion. Furthermore, Araucaria sp.…”

Biological activities and chemical constituents of Araucaria angustifolia : An effort to recover a species threatened by extinction

“…The particular composition of each pinhão almond can result from variations in the stage of development, temperature and irrigation techniques or simply reflect genetic characteristics (Astarita et al, 2003). The accumulation of nutrients occurs during the dehydration of the seeds in the final stages of ripening, generally during the months from April to May, when the protein content increases.…”

“…The presence of trypsin inhibitor activity in the flour, particularly lectin (see further), has limited the use of higher proportions of pinhão flour in the diet. Concerning free amino acids, aspartic acid and glutamic acid are the most abundant in the mature seed (Astarita et al, 2003). The seed also presents considerable amounts of tocopherols and phytosterols (da Silva et al, 2016), magnesium and copper (Cordenunsi et al, 2004).…”

“…O. Kuntze (Araucaria brasiliense), popularly known as Paraná pine, Brazilian pine or simply "Araucaria", is the sole native gymnosperm of the Atlantic forest in Brazil and has great economic, cultural and social importance (Auler et al, 2002). Originally, the natural forests of Araucaria covered 185,000 km² in Brazil (Carvalho,1994;Astarita et al, 2003). Timber exploration has dramatically reduced the species population and nowadays only 2-4% of the original population still exists (Mantovani et al, 2004;Santos et al, 2015).…”