Metabolic profiling and expression analysis of key genetic factors in the biosynthetic pathways of antioxidant metabolites in mungbean sprouts

Byeong Cheol Kim; Insu Lim; Jungmin Ha

doi:10.3389/fpls.2023.1207940

Metabolic profiling and expression analysis of key genetic factors in the biosynthetic pathways of antioxidant metabolites in mungbean sprouts

Front Plant Sci. 2023 Jun 16:14:1207940. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1207940. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Byeong Cheol Kim¹, Insu Lim¹, Jungmin Ha^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Plant Science, Gangneung-Wonju National University, Gangneung, Republic of Korea.
² Haeram Institute of Bakery Science, Gangneung-Wonju National University, Gangneung, Republic of Korea.

Abstract

Mungbeans (Vigna radiata L.), a major legume crop in Asia, contain higher amounts of functional substances than other legumes, such as catechin, chlorogenic acid, and vitexin. Germination can improve the nutritional value of legume seeds. Here, 20 functional substances were profiled in germinated mungbeans and the expression levels of the transcripts of key enzymes in targeted secondary metabolite biosynthetic pathways were identified. VC1973A, a reference mungbean elite cultivar, had the highest amount of gallic acid (99.93 ± 0.13 mg/100 g DW) but showed lower contents of most metabolites than the other genotypes. Wild mungbeans contained a large amount of isoflavones compared with cultivated genotypes, especially for daidzin, genistin and glycitin. The expression of key genes involved in biosynthetic pathways had significant positive or negative correlations with the target secondary metabolite contents. The results indicate that functional substance contents are regulated at the transcriptional level, which can be applied to improve the nutritional value of mungbean sprouts in molecular breeding or genetic engineering, and wild mungbeans are a useful resource to improve the quality of mungbean sprouts.

Keywords: UPLC; antioxidants; gene expression; metabolic profiling; mungbean sprout.

Grants and funding

This work has been supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean government (MSIT) (No. 2021R1C1C1004233). This work has been supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (No. 2022R1A4A1030348).