Thermal behaviour of lipids in short-lived seeds of Australian rainforest species.

ABSTRACT:

Background and aims

Recent studies on desiccation-tolerant Australian rainforest seeds demonstrated that some were short-lived in storage. We sought to understand structural changes of storage lipids that might occur during storage at -20 °C that could contribute to a short lifespan.

Methods

We used differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) to examine exothermic and endothermic transitions during freezing and thawing in dry seed samples of 23 species. Seed samples and extracted triacylglycerols (TAGs) were cooled to -150 °C and rewarmed to 50 °C at 10 °C min-1; slower and faster rates of cooling/warming were used for a subset of species to examine lipid crystallization and melting kinetics. Thermograms were analysed for temperature and enthalpy of observed peaks, and these wer

SUBMITTER: Sommerville KD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12718007 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature