Effect of Ageing on The Major Reserve Molecules and Their related Enzyme in Natural Aged Seeds of Flax

The natural aged seeds of flax (Linum usitatissimum) displayed a marked decline in germinability and the quantity f disarccharides. This decrease was not paralleled to the quantity of -amylase which remains constant even in the non-viable seeds. The colorimetric determination of the total free amino acids, water soluble proteins, and buffer extracted proteins indicated that quantities of water soluble proteins and buffer extracted proteins were decreased on ageing, while that of the total free amino acids showed no variation. It was also found that there was no close correlation between the protein level and carboxypeptidase, amino-peptidase and proteinase enzymes. Electrophoretic separation of the total seed proteins on SDS-PAGE exhibited that the highest molecular weight subunits (leguminlike protein) were disintegrated into low molecular weight subunits. These data indicate that a complex family of substances are involved in ageing processes.