Abstract
Truffles are ascomycetous ectomycorrhizal fungi that have elevated status in the culinary field due to their unique aroma and taste as well as their nutritional value and potential biological activities. Tuber melanosporum, T. indicum, T. panzhihuanense, T. sinoaestivum, and T. pseudoexcavatum are five commercial truffle species mainly distributed in Europe or China. In this study, an untargeted metabolomics technology based on an ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) method was applied to analyze the metabolic profiles and variations among these five truffle species. In our results, a total of 2376 metabolites were identified under positive ion mode, of which 1282 had significantly differential amounts and covered 110 pathways or metabolisms. Principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) revealed a clear separation from each of these five truffles, indicating a significantly different metabolic profile among them, with the biggest difference between T. melanosporum and the other four truffles. The differential metabolites covered various chemical categories, and a detailed analysis was performed for nine metabolic categories, including amino acids, saccharides and nucleosides, organic acids, alkaloids, flavonoids, carnitines, phenols and alcohols, esters, and sulfur compounds. For each of the nine categories, most of metabolites predominantly accumulated in T. melanosporum compared with the other four truffles. Meanwhile, there were significant differences of the average ion intensity in each category among the five truffles, e.g., higher amounts of amino acids was detected in T. panzhihuanense and T. pseudoexcavatum; T. indicum contained significantly more carnitines, while there were more alkaloids in T. melanosporum. Additionally, some metabolites with biological activities were discussed for each category, such as acetyl-L-carnitine, adenine, neobavaisoflavone, and anandamide. Generally, this study may provide the valuable information regarding the variation of the metabolic composition of these five commercial truffle species, and the biological significance of these metabolites was uncovered to explore the metabolic mechanisms of truffles, which would be helpful for further research on the compounds and potential biological functions in truffles that have not yet been investigated.
Highlights
Tuber spp., belonging to Ascomycota, are an ectomycorrhizal fungus that lives symbiotically with plants and is characterized by hypogeous fruiting bodies (Mello et al, 2006; Benucci and Bonito, 2016)
The results in this study revealed that there were significant differences in the metabolic characteristics among the five truffle species, especially between T. melanosporum and the other four truffles
The host plants of T. melanosporum belongs to Quercus while the other four truffles’ host plants are Pinus; and T. melanosporum grow in the alkaline soil while the other truffles in this study adapted to slightly acidic soils, which showed the obvious differences of the ecological environment between T. melanosporum and the other four truffles
Summary
Tuber spp., belonging to Ascomycota, are an ectomycorrhizal fungus that lives symbiotically with plants and is characterized by hypogeous fruiting bodies (Mello et al, 2006; Benucci and Bonito, 2016) Their fruiting bodies are called truffles, and are referred to as “underground gold” because they are rare and are highly valued for their culinary and medicinal traits (Tang et al, 2015). Tuber melanosporum is the most highly appreciated black truffle due to its unique and intense fragrance It is mainly produced in countries along the Mediterranean coast, such as Italy, France, and Spain, and commands a very expensive price in the edible fungus market (Bertault et al, 1998; Campo et al, 2017). Called the Chinese white truffle, is a unique truffle species in southwest China discovered in 2011 with a pleasant aroma and flavor, and is the only white truffle species with great commercial potential found in China (3000–5000 RMB/kg market value) (Deng et al, 2013; Yang et al, 2019)
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