Building comprehensive glucosinolate profiles for brassica varieties

Leanne E Mocniak; Kyle R Elkin; S Leanne Dillard; Ray B Bryant; Kathy J Soder

doi:10.1016/j.talanta.2022.123814

Building comprehensive glucosinolate profiles for brassica varieties

Talanta. 2023 Jan 1:251:123814. doi: 10.1016/j.talanta.2022.123814. Epub 2022 Aug 6.

Authors

Leanne E Mocniak¹, Kyle R Elkin², S Leanne Dillard³, Ray B Bryant², Kathy J Soder⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, United States.
² Pasture Systems and Watershed Management Research Unit, USDA-Agricultural Research Service, Building 3702 Curtin Rd, University Park, PA, 16802, United States.
³ Department of Animal Sciences and Department of Crop, Soil, and Environmental Sciences, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, 36830, United States.
⁴ Pasture Systems and Watershed Management Research Unit, USDA-Agricultural Research Service, Building 3702 Curtin Rd, University Park, PA, 16802, United States. Electronic address: Kathy.Soder@usda.gov.

PMID: 35961082
DOI: 10.1016/j.talanta.2022.123814

Abstract

Brassica plants play an important role in common agricultural practices, such as livestock feed or biofumigation, due to the bioactivity of the natural degradation products of glucosinolate metabolites. Therefore, the ability to survey comprehensive glucosinolate profiles for individual brassicas is essential for informing proper species selection for the intended application. Current methods for glucosinolate identification and quantification involve complex or unconventional procedures, and proper reference materials are not readily available. Therefore, researchers with limited resources that require glucosinolate profiles are at an extreme disadvantage. In this work, a simple and accurate HPLC-MS method was developed and validated to build preliminary glucosinolate profiles for three agriculturally relevant forage brassica varieties [turnip (B. rapa L.), canola (B. napus L.), and rapeseed (B. napus L.)]. The average glucosinolate content across three herbage collection dates for canola, rapeseed and turnip were 2.9 ± 0.9 mg g^-1, 6.4 ± 1.3 mg g^-1, and 14 ± 3.4 mg g^-1, respectively. GLS concentrations are reported in milligrams of glucosinolate, calculated as sinigrin equivalents, per gram of dry plant material. This semi-quantitative approach for reporting total GLS content in brassicas is accurate within 15%. Several minor individual glucosinolates were identified that have not been previously reported in canola, rapeseed and turnip species, including glucotropaeolin and 4-hydroxyglucobrassicin (canola), glucoraphanin and glucoberteroin (rapeseed), and glucosinalbin and glucobarbarin (turnip). This non-targeted screen of several forage brassica varieties demonstrates the inherent variation in both the individual glucosinolate content and the total glucosinolate profile among brassicas, and highlights the importance of such glucosinolate characterization in agricultural practices. Additionally, the method developed in this study can be used as a tool for researchers with limited resources to build accurate glucosinolate profiles of brassica plants.

Keywords: Biofumigation; Brassicas; Forages; Glucosinolates; Mass spectrometry; Semi-quantitative.

MeSH terms

Brassica napus*
Brassica rapa*
Brassica* / metabolism
Glucosinolates / metabolism

Substances

Glucosinolates