Analysis of Normal and Mutant Peanut Chloroplast Pigments By Liquid Chromatography1

Abstract Chloroplast pigments from young and old leaves of three chlorophyll-deficient peanut mutants (lutescens, auredus, and virescent) and two “normal” peanut genotypes (‘Chico’ and ‘Guanajuato’) were analyzed using high performance liquid chromatography. All genotypes showed chlorophylls a and b, carotene, lutein, neoxanthin, and violaxanthin in young and old leaves. Generally, there were decreases in most pigments as the leaves aged for Guanajuato, Chico, and aureus, whereas the reverse was true for virescent and lutescens except for violaxanthin, for which the latter two mutants showed decreases. Guanajuato and Chico consistently showed larger quantities of all pigments than the mutants at the young age. Guanajuato showed the largest quantities of all pigments at the old age. Aureus contrasted sharply with the other genotypes for carotenoid to chlorophyll ratio in the old leaves, probably accounting for its conspicuous yellow color.