The Effect of Ploidy on the Concentration of Soluble Sugars in Wheat Seeds– Exploring the Metabolome of Afghan Wheat Landraces

摘要

Background: Cultivated wheat exists in two ploidies: allotetraploid pasta wheat and allohexaploidbread wheat. Ploidy is known to modify plant metabolism, yet studies comparing metabolomicprofiles of allotetraploid and allohexaploid wheat are scarce.Objective: To characterize the ploidy and metabolomic profiles of selected Afghan wheat landracescollected in the 1960’s and preserved in Japan and elite wheat cultivars.Methods: Ploidy was determined in cell nuclei of wheat seedlings using flow cytometry. Metabolicprofiles of polar compounds were obtained with 1H NMR. Metabolite identification was performedwith 2D NMR and comparison against databases.Results: We identified allotetraploid and allohexaploid variants of wheat landraces collected in Afghanistanhalf a century ago. 1H NMR metabolomics discovered a separation between the allotetraploidand allohexaploid metabolic profiles. 2D NMR based compound identification showedthat the most variable metabolites were low molecular weight sugars, compounds that were moreabundant in seeds of allotetraploid wheats.Conclusion: We discovered a correlation between ploidy and metabolomic profiles with higher concentrationsof soluble sugars in allotetraploid wheat.