Pratibha Chaurvedi, Shradha Surve, Sandeepan Mukherjee, Shreewardhan Rajopadhye, Nikhil Kasarpalkar, A. Rosalind Marita and Abhay Chowdhary
Legumes including cowpea have been widely grown and their seeds are used as human and animal food to provide calories and protein. As food, cowpea seeds are eaten in different forms; they could be boiled, parched, fried, roasted, mixed with sauce or stewed and consumed directly. Its seeds are consumed in different forms as they provide important vitamins, phyto-nutrients including antioxidants besides carbohydrates, minerals and trace elements. In addition, it is a cheap source of high quality protein in the diets of millions in developing , who cannot afford costly animal protein for balanced nutrition .The present study describes the probable role of Aspartic Protease gene expression in kaempferol production in germinating cow pea seeds .The various germinating stages of two different varieties of Vigna articulata L. namely Pusa Kolum and Konkan Sadabahar seeds were used as the experimental material. The drought resistance nature of Aspartic protease stimulate the production of Kaempferol , which is a well-known antioxidant compound . The production of antioxidant compound i.e. Kaempferol was decreased with the germination time which has been also seen in gene expression of Aspartic protease in Konkan Sadabahar ,which support the principle of production of secondary metabolite at the time of stress .The Kaempferol content were analysed with the help of HPTLC spectral studies whereas gene expression were done by molecular methods. This kind of study is not well documented in Vigna articulata.
