Diversity in blueberry genotypes and developmental stages enables discrepancy in the bioactive compounds, metabolites, and cytotoxicity

Protiva Rani Das; Ahmed G Darwish; Ahmed Ismail; Amr M Haikal; Pranavkumar Gajjar; Subramani Paranthaman Balasubramani; Mehboob B Sheikh; Violeta Tsolova; Karam F A Soliman; Sherif M Sherif; Islam El-Sharkawy

doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2021.131632

Diversity in blueberry genotypes and developmental stages enables discrepancy in the bioactive compounds, metabolites, and cytotoxicity

Food Chem. 2022 Apr 16:374:131632. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2021.131632. Epub 2021 Nov 18.

Affiliations

¹ Center for Viticulture and Small Fruit Research, College of Agriculture and Food Sciences, Florida A&M University, Tallahassee, FL 32308, USA; Alson H. Smith Jr. Agricultural Research and Extension Center, School of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Virginia Tech, Winchester, VA 22602, USA.
² Center for Viticulture and Small Fruit Research, College of Agriculture and Food Sciences, Florida A&M University, Tallahassee, FL 32308, USA; Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Agriculture, Minia University, Minia 61519, Egypt.
³ Center for Viticulture and Small Fruit Research, College of Agriculture and Food Sciences, Florida A&M University, Tallahassee, FL 32308, USA; Department of Horticulture, Faculty of Agriculture, Damanhour University, Damanhour 22516, Behera, Egypt.
⁴ Department of Horticulture, Faculty of Agriculture, Damanhour University, Damanhour 22516, Behera, Egypt.
⁵ Center for Viticulture and Small Fruit Research, College of Agriculture and Food Sciences, Florida A&M University, Tallahassee, FL 32308, USA.
⁶ Center for Viticulture and Small Fruit Research, College of Agriculture and Food Sciences, Florida A&M University, Tallahassee, FL 32308, USA; Department of Natural Sciences, Albany State University, Albany, GA 31705, USA.
⁷ College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Institute of Public Health, Florida A&M University, Tallahassee, FL 32307, USA.
⁸ Alson H. Smith Jr. Agricultural Research and Extension Center, School of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Virginia Tech, Winchester, VA 22602, USA. Electronic address: ssherif@vt.edu.
⁹ Center for Viticulture and Small Fruit Research, College of Agriculture and Food Sciences, Florida A&M University, Tallahassee, FL 32308, USA. Electronic address: islam.elsharkawy@famu.edu.

Abstract

Eight blueberry cultivars at three developmental stages were investigated for metabolite profiling, antioxidant, and anticancer activities. Cultivars- and developmental stages-variations were determined in total phenolic, flavonoid, DPPH, and FRAP antioxidant assays. The anticancer capacity was equal against A549, HepG2, and Caco-2 cancer cells, whereas the inhibition rate was dose-, incubation period-, cultivar-, and developmental stages-dependent. The untargeted metabolite profiling by UPLC-TOF-MS analysis of two contrast cultivars, 'Vernon' and 'Star', throughout the developmental stages revealed 328 metabolites; the majority of them were amino acids, organic acids, and flavonoids. The multivariate statistical analysis identified five metabolites, including quinic acid, methyl succinic acid, chlorogenic acid, oxoadipic acid, and malic acid, with positively higher correlations with all anticancer activities. This comprehensive database of blueberry metabolites along with anticancer activities could be targeted as natural anticancer potentials. This study would be of great value for food, nutraceutical, and pharmaceutical industries as well as plant biotechnologists.

Keywords: Anticancer; Antioxidant; Berry developmental stage; Biomarker metabolites; Blueberry cultivars; Untargeted metabolomics.

MeSH terms

Antioxidants
Blueberry Plants*
Caco-2 Cells
Genotype
Humans
Phenols

Substances

Antioxidants
Phenols

Grants and funding

U54 MD007582/MD/NIMHD NIH HHS/United States