Metabolome-based discrimination analysis of shallot landraces and bulb onion cultivars associated with differences in the amino acid and flavonoid profiles

December 16, 2020

Identification of high functionalities of shallot to create new Allium resources

A joint research group of Yamaguchi University and RIKEN CSRS detected 407 metabolites derived from bulbs of shallots and bulb onions using high-precision phytochemical analysis and clarified metabolic profiles with the aim of identifying useful chemical components of shallots and discovering new possibilities for industrial use. When the profile was analyzed using various statistical methods, shallots and bulb onions exhibited distinctively different metabolic profiles and were clearly discriminated. Variable importance in the projection and Spearman’s rank correlation indicated that free amino acids, oligopeptides, flavonoids (especially metabolites having flavonol aglycone), anthocyanins, and organic acids were among the top metabolite variables that were highly associated with shallot landraces. The absolute quantification of 21 amino acids using conventional HPLC analysis showed higher contents in shallots rather than in bulb onions. The study showed that shallots have reprogrammed their metabolism toward a high accumulation of amino acids and flavonoids as an adaptive mechanism in extremely hot tropical environments.

Original article

Molecules doi:10.3390/molecules25225300

M. Abdelrahman, N. A. Ariyanti, Y. Sawada, F. Tsuji, S. Hirata, T. T. M. Hang, M. Okamoto, Y. Yamada, H. Tsugawa, M. Yokota Hirai, M. Shigyo,

"Metabolome-based discrimination analysis of shallot landraces and bulb onion cultivars associated with differences in the amino Acid and flavonoid profiles".

Contact

Masami Hirai

Team Leader

Metabolic Systems Research Team