Abstract
Foxtail millet (Setaria italica) is an important minor cereal crop in China. The yellow color of the de-husked grain is the most direct aspect for evaluating the foxtail millet quality. The yellow pigment mainly includes carotenoids (lutein and zeaxanthin) and flavonoids. To reveal the diversity and specificity of flavonoids in foxtail millet, we chose three high eating quality and two poor eating quality varieties as research materials. A total of 116 flavonoid metabolites were identified based on Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography-Electrospray Ionization-Tandem Mass Spectrometry (UPLC-ESI-MS/MS) system. The tested varieties contained similar levels of flavonoid metabolites, but with each variety accumulating its unique flavonoid metabolites. A total of 33 flavonoid metabolites were identified as significantly discrepant between high eating quality and poor eating quality varieties, which were mainly in the flavonoid biosynthesis pathway and one of its branches, the flavone and flavonol biosynthesis pathway. These results showed the diversified components of flavonoids accumulated in foxtail millets and laid the foundation for further research on flavonoids and the breeding for high-quality foxtail millet varieties.
Highlights
IntroductionFoxtail millet plays a nutritional and functional role in the diet for many people [2]
QZH is another outstanding variety bred from an elite landrace that originated from Qinxian County in Shanxi province
Principal components analysis (PCA), orthogonal partial least squares discrimination analysis (OPLS-DA), hierarchical clustering analysis (HCA), and the volcano plot drawing were carried out using ggplot2, pheatmap packages of R [31,32,33]
Summary
Foxtail millet plays a nutritional and functional role in the diet for many people [2]. It is nutritionally comparable to some other major cereals It has a higher content of protein, lipids, and lower carbohydrate content than some cereals (wheat and maize) [3]. Foxtail millet has double protein content, fourfold minerals and fat, and triple calcium [4]. Ample evidence showed that increasing the consumption of foxtail millet was associated with a lower risk of diabetes [5]. Foxtail millet is gaining increasing attention among consumers. There have been preliminary studies on carotenoids in foxtail millet [6,7]. A systematic understanding of flavonoid diversity in foxtail millet is still lacking
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