Effects of Organic and Conventional Crop Nutrition on Profiles of Polar Metabolites in Grain of Wheat

Mitigation of microbial nitrogen-derived metabolic hazards as a driver for safer alcoholic beverage choices: An evidence-based review and future perspectives

Alcoholic beverages have been enjoyed worldwide as hedonistic commodities for thousands of years. The unique quality and flavor are attributed to the rich microbiota and nutritional materials involved in fermentation. However, the metabolism of these microbiota can also introduce toxic compounds into foods. Nitrogen-derived metabolic hazards (NMH) are toxic metabolic hazards produced by microorganisms metabolizing nitrogen sources that can contaminate alcoholic beverages during fermentation and processing. NMH contamination poses a risk to dietary safety and human health without effective preventive strategies. Existing literature has primarily focused on investigating the causes of NMH formation, detection methods, and abatement techniques for NMH in fermentation end-products. Devising effective process regulation strategies represents a major challenge for the alcoholic beverage industry considering our current lack of understanding regarding the processes whereby NMH are generated, real-time and online detection, and the high degradation rate after NMH formation. This review summarizes the types and mechanisms of nitrogenous hazard contamination, the potential risk points, and the analytical techniques to detect NMH contamination. We discussed the changing patterns of NMH contamination and effective strategies to prevent contamination at different stages in the production of alcoholic beverages. Moreover, we also discussed the advanced technologies and methods to control NMH contamination in alcoholic beverages based on intelligent monitoring, synthetic ecology, and computational assistance. Overall, this review highlights the risks of NMH contamination during alcoholic beverage production and proposes promising strategies that could be adopted to eliminate the risk of NMH contamination.

Integrative analysis of the effects of organic and conventional farming methods on peanut based on transcriptome and metabolomics

To elucidate the nutritional quality of peanut under different farming methods, we selected two cultivars, "jihua13" and "jihua4", to grow in organic and conventional environments, respectively. After harvest, we measured physiological parameters and differential metabolites. Metabolomics showed that most of the amino acids, carbohydrates, and secondary metabolites in organically grown jihua4 were downregulated, which was completely the opposite in jihua13. Fatty acids associated with heart disease and hypertension are reduced in organically grown peanuts. In particular, the highly statistically significant tryptophan betaine seems to be used as a reference to distinguish between organic and conventional cultivation. Mechanisms leading to differences in crop chemical composition are explained by transcriptome analysis. The results of the transcriptome analysis indicated that organic cultivation largely affects the synthesis of amino acids and carbohydrates in jihua13. Combined analysis of transcriptome and metabolomics found that variety jihua13 is more sensitive to farming methods and produces more unsaturated fatty acids than jihua4.

1H NMR-Based Chemometrics to Gain Insights Into the Bran of Radiation-Induced Colored Wheat Mutant

Recently, wheat has attracted attention as a functional food, rather than a simple dietary energy source. Accordingly, whole-grain intake increases with an understanding of bioactive phytochemicals in bran. The development of colored wheat has drawn more attention to the value of bran owing to its nutritional quality, as well as the antioxidant properties of the colorant. The present ¹H NMR-based chemometric study evaluated the compositional improvement of radiation-induced mutants in purple wheat by focusing on the predominant metabolites with high polarity. A total of 33 metabolites, including three choline derivatives, three sugar alcohols, four sugars, 13 amino acids, eight organic acids, and two nucleosides, were identified throughout the ¹H NMR spectra, and quantification data were obtained for the identified metabolites via peak shape-based quantification. Principal component and hierarchical cluster analyses were conducted for performing multivariate analyses. The colored original wheat was found to exhibit improvements compared to yellow wheat in terms of the contents of primary metabolites, thus highlighting the importance of conducting investigations of polar metabolites. The chemometrics studies further revealed mutant lines with a compositional enhancement for metabolites, including lysine, proline, acetate, and glycerol.

Comprehensive profiling of semi-polar phytochemicals in whole wheat grains (Triticum aestivum) using liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray ionization quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry

INTRODUCTION

Wheat (Triticum aestivum) it is one of the most important staple food crops worldwide and represents an important resource for human nutrition. Besides starch, proteins and micronutrients wheat grains accumulate a highly diverse set of phytochemicals.

OBJECTIVES

This work aimed at the development and validation of an analytical workflow for comprehensive profiling of semi-polar phytochemicals in whole wheat grains.

METHOD

Reversed-phase ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray ionization quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC/ESI-QTOFMS) was used as analytical platform. For annotation of metabolites accurate mass collision-induced dissociation mass spectra were acquired and interpreted in conjunction with literature data, database queries and analyses of reference compounds.

RESULTS

Based on reversed-phase UHPLC/ESI-QTOFMS an analytical workflow for comprehensive profiling of semi-polar phytochemicals in whole wheat grains was developed. For method development the extraction procedure and the chromatographic separation were optimized. Using whole grains of eight wheat cultivars a total of 248 metabolites were annotated and characterized by chromatographic and tandem mass spectral data. Annotated metabolites comprise hydroquinones, hydroxycinnamic acid amides, flavonoids, benzoxazinoids, lignans and other phenolics as well as numerous primary metabolites such as nucleosides, amino acids and derivatives, organic acids, saccharides and B vitamin derivatives. For method validation, recovery rates and matrix effects were determined for ten exogenous model compounds. Repeatability and linearity were assessed for 39 representative endogenous metabolites. In addition, the accuracy of relative quantification was evaluated for six exogenous model compounds.

CONCLUSIONS

In conjunction with non-targeted and targeted data analysis strategies the developed analytical workflow was successfully applied to discern differences in the profiles of semi-polar phytochemicals accumulating in whole grains of eight wheat cultivars.

Promoting Human Nutrition and Health through Plant Metabolomics: Current Status and Challenges

Simple Summary

This review summarizes the status, applications, and challenges of plant metabolomics in the context of crop breeding, food quality and safety, and human nutrition and health. It also highlights the importance of plant metabolomics in elucidating biochemical and genetic bases of traits associated with nutritive and healthy beneficial foods and other plant products to secure food supply, to ensure food quality, to protect humans from malnutrition and other diseases. Meanwhile, this review calls for comprehensive collaborations to accelerate relevant researches and applications in the context of human nutrition and health.

Abstract

Plant metabolomics plays important roles in both basic and applied studies regarding all aspects of plant development and stress responses. With the improvement of living standards, people need high quality and safe food supplies. Thus, understanding the pathways involved in the biosynthesis of nutritionally and healthily associated metabolites in plants and the responses to plant-derived biohazards in humans is of equal importance to meet people’s needs. For each, metabolomics has a vital role to play, which is discussed in detail in this review. In addition, the core elements of plant metabolomics are highlighted, researches on metabolomics-based crop improvement for nutrition and safety are summarized, metabolomics studies on plant natural products including traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) for health promotion are briefly presented. Challenges are discussed and future perspectives of metabolomics as one of the most important tools to promote human nutrition and health are proposed.

Solutions for whole grain food development

Owing to the health benefits associated with whole grains, there has been a sustained global effort to increase their consumption, with many countries developing guidelines for recommended amounts of whole grain intake. In China, the consumption of whole grains is low. This is due, in part, to technical obstacles in the development of whole grain foods. This review focuses on possible solutions in the whole value chain and the application of new food technologies to develop whole grain foods that taste better, have more appealing texture, are safe to consume, and better retain bioactive compounds.