TITLE:
Screening of Seed Soluble Sugar Content in Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp)
AUTHORS:
Yuejin Weng, Waltram Second Ravelombola, Wei Yang, Jun Qin, Wei Zhou, Y.-J. Wang, Beiquan Mou, Ainong Shi
KEYWORDS:
Seeds Storage, Soluble Sugar, Germplasm, Seed Color
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Plant Sciences,
Vol.9 No.7,
June
21,
2018
ABSTRACT: Cowpea
(Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp) is a legume
crop grown worldwide to provide protein, starch, soluble sugar, amino acids,
fatty acids, minerals, and vitamins for human consumption and animal feed.
Soluble sugar is an important physiological trait in cowpea seeds. It not only
plays an important role in storability and abiotic stress tolerance in seeds,
but also provides energy to the human body and improves cooking quality by giving a desirable
taste and mouth feel. Therefore, this
research aimed to evaluate variation of cowpea seed soluble sugar content, and
assess the soluble
sugar content of cowpea varieties with different seed coat colors for cowpea
consumers. A total of 113 cowpea genotypes were used, including 89 USDA GRIN germplasm
accessions and 24 advanced breeding lines developed from University of Arkansas,
AR, USA. Seed soluble sugar content was measured using a Spectrophotometer
by phenol-sulphuric acid method. The results showed that the seed soluble sugar
contents among
113 cowpea genotypes exhibited a wide range varying from 32.6 mg/g to 86.1 mg/g
with an average of 54.5 mg/g. The five highest soluble sugar contents in seeds
were found in the Arkansas cultivar Empire (86.1 mg/g), USDA germplasm
accession PI583202 (84.5 mg/g), Arkansas advanced breeding line 09-655 (82.1
mg/g), USDA accession PI601085 (81.6 mg/g), and Arkansas advanced breeding line 09-529 (80.9
mg/g), and they can be used in cowpea breeding programs to develop new cowpea
cultivars with higher seed soluble sugar content. It was also observed that the
soluble sugar contents in Arkansas commercial cultivars and advanced breeding lines were higher
than those in USDA germplasm and the seeds with colorful coat may have soluble
sugar levels desirable
by consumers.