Abstract
The oat (Avena sativa L.) is a grain of the Poaceae grass family and contains many powerful anti-oxidants, including avenanthramides as phenolic alkaloids with anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, anti-itch, anti-irritant, and anti-atherogenic activities. Here, the treatment of germinating oats with methyl jasmonate (MeJA) or abscisic acid (ABA) resulted in 2.5-fold (582.9 mg/kg FW) and 2.8-fold (642.9 mg/kg FW) increase in avenanthramide content, respectively, relative to untreated controls (232.6 mg/kg FW). Moreover, MeJA and ABA co-treatment synergistically increased avenanthramide production in germinating oats to 1505 mg/kg FW. Individual or combined MeJA and ABA treatment increased the expression of genes encoding key catalytic enzymes in the avenanthramide-biosynthesis pathway, including hydroxycinnamoyl-CoA:hydrocyanthranilate N-hydroxycinnamoyl transferase (HHT). Further analyses showed that six AsHHT genes were effectively upregulated by MeJA or ABA treatment, especially AsHHT4 for MeJA and AsHHT5 for ABA, thereby enhancing the production of all three avenanthramides in germinating oats. Specifically, AsHHT5 exhibited the highest expression following MeJA and ABA co-treatment, indicating that AsHHT5 played a more crucial role in avenanthramide biosynthesis in response to MeJA and ABA co-treatment of germinating oats. These findings suggest that elicitor-mediated metabolite farming using MeJA and ABA could be a valuable method for avenanthramide production in germinating oats.
Highlights
Plants are complex organisms that form an important part of our daily lives
The results suggested that co-treatment of germinating oats with methyl jasmonate (MeJA) or abscisic acid (ABA) showed a significant and synergistic effect on the expression of structural genes involved in avenanthramide biosynthesis, thereby leading to enhanced production of avenanthramides
EtOH and distilled water (DW) controls. These results suggested the efficacy of MeJA and as elicitors for enhanced production of avenanthramides in oatinseedlings
Summary
In addition to primary metabolites essential for growth and development, plants produce a vast number of compounds that play crucial roles in defense and environmental adaptation (i.e., secondary metabolites) [1,2,3,4] Secondary metabolites, such as terpenes, alkaloids, flavonoids, and carotenoids, have many industrial uses, including as pharmaceuticals, pesticides, flavorings, and food additives [2,3]. The aim is to increase the value of plants or plant cell cultures by enhancing the contents of the main bioactive substances These methods are applied to generate useful natural materials in high-value-added foods, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical products and as a key approach for enhancing the competitiveness of agriculture as an industry [31]. The application of a small-scale metabolite-farming system to increase the avenanthramide content in germinating oats via treatment with various elicitors was investigated.
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