Costarelli Alma, Cannavò Sara, Cerri Martina, Pellegrino Roberto Maria, Reale Lara, Paolocci Francesco, Pasqualini Stefania
Department of Chemistry, Biology and Biotechnology, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy.
Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy.
Front Plant Sci. 2021 Oct 21;12:727667. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2021.727667. eCollection 2021.
is a genus of floating freshwater ferns. By their high growth and N fixation rates, species have been exploited for centuries by populations of South-east Asia as biofertilizers in rice paddies. The use of species as a sustainable plant material for diverse applications, such as feeding, biofuel production, and bioremediation, has encountered a growing interest over the last few years. However, high levels of feed deterrent flavonoids in their fronds have discouraged the use of these ferns as a sustainable protein source for animal consumption. Additionally, information on how and to what extent environmental determinants affect the accumulation of secondary metabolites in these organisms remains poorly understood. Moving from these considerations, here, we investigated by an untargeted metabolomics approach the profiles of phenylpropanoid compounds in the fronds of sampled under control and pigment-inducing stress conditions. In parallel, we assayed the expression of essential structural genes of the phenylpropanoid pathway by quantitative RT-PCR. This study provides novel information concerning phenylpropanoid compounds and their temporal profiling in response to environmental stimuli. In particular, we show that besides the already known 3-deoxyanthocyanidins, anthocyanidins, and proanthocyanidins, this fern can accumulate additional secondary metabolites of outstanding importance, such as chemoattractants, defense compounds, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavengers, and crucial as dietary components for humans, such as dihydrochalcones, stilbenes, isoflavones, and phlobaphenes. The findings of this study open an opportunity for future research studies to unveil the interplay between genetic and environmental determinants underlying the elicitation of the secondary metabolites in ferns and exploit these organisms as sustainable sources of beneficial metabolites for human health.
是一种漂浮的淡水蕨类植物属。由于其高生长率和固氮率，几个世纪以来，东南亚的人们一直将其作为稻田中的生物肥料加以利用。在过去几年中，将该属植物用作可持续的植物材料用于多种用途，如饲料、生物燃料生产和生物修复，受到了越来越多的关注。然而，其叶片中高水平的饲料威慑性黄酮类化合物阻碍了将这些蕨类植物用作动物食用的可持续蛋白质来源。此外，关于环境决定因素如何以及在多大程度上影响这些生物体中次生代谢物积累的信息仍然知之甚少。基于这些考虑，我们在这里通过非靶向代谢组学方法研究了在对照和色素诱导胁迫条件下采样的该属植物叶片中苯丙烷类化合物的概况。同时，我们通过定量RT-PCR测定了苯丙烷途径关键结构基因的表达。本研究提供了关于该属植物苯丙烷类化合物及其对环境刺激的时间分布的新信息。特别是，我们表明，除了已知的3-脱氧花青素、花青素和原花青素外，这种蕨类植物还可以积累其他具有重要意义的次生代谢物，如化学引诱剂、防御化合物和活性氧（ROS）清除剂，以及对人类饮食至关重要的成分，如二氢查耳酮、芪类、异黄酮和红粉。这项研究的结果为未来的研究提供了一个机会，以揭示蕨类植物中次生代谢物诱导背后的遗传和环境决定因素之间的相互作用，并将这些生物体开发为对人类健康有益的代谢物的可持续来源。
