Abstract

Patterns of amino acids have been studied in different stages of germination of Phaseolus aconitifolius. A comparison of amino acids of freshly harvested seeds and stored seeds reveals that aspartic acid, glutamic acid, alanine and tyrosine are present in all stages of germination of freshly harvested seeds while aspartic acid is absent in stages I and II of stored seeds but appears in stage III. Arginine is present in stages I and III of fresh and stored seeds and absent in stage II of both. However in stage III of stored seeds arginine is lacking in plumule. This may be regarded as threshold of viability. Amino acids like proline, leucine and valine are lacking in plumule of both fresh and stored seeds. This would only mean that these amino acids have no role to play in initiation of leaf primordia.