ABSTRACT
Objective:To reveal the dynamic changes of flavonoids secondary metabolites and relevant genes expressions in the process of germination of tartary buckwheat seeds by investigating the content of catechins，epicatechins，rutin，and quercetin，and the expressions of their relevant genes in tartary buckwheat sprouts and seedlings，in order to provide scientific basis for the selection of high-quality, high-nutrition tartary buckwheat sprouts.Method:Contents of catechin，epicatechin，rutin，and quercetin in tartary buckwheat sprouts and seedlings were detected by UPLC-ESI-QQQ-MS，and the expression levels of genes relating to flavonoids synthesis in tartary buckwheat sprouts and seedlings were detected by real-time quantitative PCR.Result:There were differences between tartary buckwheat sprouts and seedlings in the relative contents of catechin，epicatechin，rutin and quercetin，as well as the expressions of relevant genes in the synthesis pathway, including FtPAL，FtC4H，Ft4CL，FtCHS，FtCHI，FtF3H，FtF3'H，FtFLS，FtDFR，FtLAR，FtANS，FtANR. The contents of flavonoids and the expressions of relevant genes in tartary buckwheat sprouts were higher than those in tartary buckwheat seedlings.Conclusion:The higher accumulation of secondary metabolites and flavonoids in tartary buckwheat sprouts may be related to tartary buckwheat seeds' resistance to the external environment in the initial growth stage of germination. From the perspective of application，there are more flavonoids in tartary buckwheat sprouts than in tartary buckwheat seedlings, indicating that tartary buckwheat sprouts have a higher nutritional value.
ABSTRACT
Most of Chinese medicinal herbs are subjected to traditional processing procedures, including stir-frying, charring, steaming, boiling, and calcining before they are released into dispensaries. The marketing and identification of processed medicinal materials is a growing issue in the marketplace. However, conventional methods of identification have limitations, while DNA mini-barcoding, based on the sequencing of a short-standardized region, has received considerable attention as a new potential means to identify processed medicinal materials. In the present study, six DNA barcode loci including ITS2, psbA-trnH, rbcL, matK, trnL (UAA) intron and its P6 loop, were employed for the authentication of 45 processed samples belonging to 15 species. We evaluated the amplification efficiency of each locus. We also examined the identification accuracy of the potential mini-barcode locus, of trnL (UAA) intron P6 loop. Our results showed that the five primary barcode loci were successfully amplified in only 8.89%-20% of the processed samples, while the amplification rates of the trnL (UAA) intron P6 loop were higher, at 75.56% successful amplification. We compared the mini-barcode sequences with Genbank using the Blast program. The analysis showed that 45.23% samples could be identified to genus level, while only one sample could be identified to the species level. We conclude that trnL (UAA) p6 loop is a candidate mini-barcode that has shown its potential and may become a universal mini-barcode as complementary barcode for authenticity testing and will play an important role in medicinal materials control.