ABSTRACT
The perennial grass cocksfoot (Dactylis glomerata L.) is a valuable early highly nutritious crop used as green fodder in agricultural production. The species is widespread across the Eurasian continent; it is characterized by plasticity and high ecological and geographical variability. The article considers the metabolic profiles of 15 accessions of the cocksfoot from the collection of the N.I. Vavilov Institute of Plant Genetic Resources (VIR). The material is represented by varieties and wild forms of various origin: the European part of the Russian Federation, Norway and Finland. The study was carried out using gas-liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry. The study and comparison of groups of metabolites of cocksfoot accessions of various ecological and geographical origin was carried out. Statistical processing included the calculation of the main parameters of variability, factor analysis of the correlation system (Q- and R-technique), cluster analysis by Ward's method and discriminant analysis. The variability of the quantitative and qualitative composition of the substances identified was revealed. Based on statistical processing of the results obtained, five groups of cocksfoot accessions were identified, differing in the profile of metabolites. One of the groups with a similar composition of metabolites consisted of accessions from one ecological and geographical region; another, of accessions of different origin. Significant differences were noted in the metabolomic profiles of a late-maturing wild cocksfoot accession from the Republic of Karelia at the booting stage from early- and mid-maturing accessions at the heading stage; it contained the largest number of free amino acids and the smallest number of identified primary and secondary metabolites. Wild-growing accession k-44020 from Norway surpassed other wild-growing accessions in the content of free amino acids, sugars and phosphates at the heading stage. Wild-growing accessions differed from breeding varieties with a high content of proline and threonine, indicators of high resistance to lack of moisture and high air temperature.
ABSTRACT
Recently, the trend of using fruit and berry crops as ingredients for functional and dietary nutrition, the development and implementation of f lavors, pigments, new medicines and dietary supplements has been actualized. Because the direction of use depends on the biochemical properties of fruits, which are determined not only by species and varietal characteristics, but also by reproduction conditions, the study of the biochemical composition of fruits grown in various regions of the world continues to be relevant. In this regard, the collection of N.I. Vavilov Institute (VIR), which has a wide diversity of fruit and berry crops, is of great interest for study. Ribes nigrum fruits have a balanced set of sugars, organic acids, essential oils, microelements, a high content of vitamins, anthocyanins, pectins. Lonicera caerulea fruits are characterized by high values of phenolic substances: biof lavonoids, hydroxycinnamic acids, f lavonols, polyphenols, anthocyanins, as well as vitamins, carotenoids, iridoid glycosides and other natural antioxidants. The investigation of L. caerulea and R. nigrum fruit's accessions from the VIR collection using gas-liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry allows us to obtain new information about the biochemical characteristics of fruits, to identify L. caerulea and R. nigrum varieties with optimal economically valuable characteristics, to determine the specif icity of L. caerulea and R. nigrum metabolomic spectra in the setting of Northwest Russia. As a result of the analysis, typical compounds of the metabolomic prof ile of each culture were identif ied. Organic acids, phenol-containing compounds and polyols prevailed in L. caerulea, while mono- and oligosaccharides, in R. nigrum. The qualitative composition of the black currant varieties 'Malen'kii Printz', 'Dobriyi Dzhinn', 'Tisel', 'Orlovskii Val's', and blue honeysuckle 'S 322-4', 'Malvina', 'Leningradsky Velikan' was optimal for food consumption; the varieties of blue honeysuckle 'Bazhovskaya' and black currant 'Aleander' had a good representation of biologically active compounds, which makes samples attractive as raw materials for the production of biologically active additives, including with the use of microorganisms' cultures.
ABSTRACT
Narrow-leaved lupine (Lupinus аngustifolius L.) is a widely cultivated leguminous forage and green manure crop with a potential for human nutrition. However, the presence of secondary metabolites - alkaloids - in lupine seeds considerably affects the quality of raw produce, reducing its nutritive value; in addition, high concentrations of alkaloids are toxic to humans and animals. Therefore, plant breeders working with lupine need to gain knowledge about the variability of alkaloid content in seeds of different genotypes and search for the sources of their low concentrations in the crop's gene pool. The collection of narrow-leaved lupine genetic resources held by the N.I. Vavilov Institute of Plant Genetic Resources (VIR) offers wide opportunities for such search by means of mass screening. For its part, largescale gene pool screening requires the selection of an optimal technique to measure alkaloid content in seeds, so that it would be easily reproducible and as little labor-, time- and fund-consuming as possible. The results of the search for such method are presented. Qualitative and quantitative indices were compared when target compounds had been extracted with multicomponent mixtures and individual reagents (chloroform, methanol, etc.) and the extracts analyzed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. High-performance liquid chromatography combined with mass spectrometry was also employed. Five major alkaloids were found to be present in all types of extracts: lupanine, 13-hydroxylupanine (dominant ones), angustifoline, sparteine, and isolupanine. The fullest extraction of alkaloids was observed when the extractant with an added alkaline agent was used (425 mg/100 g). The lowest level of extraction was registered with chloroform (216 mg/100 g). The significance of the differences was confirmed statistically.
ABSTRACT
Broadening of the genetic diversity of donors of resistance to biotic environmental factors is a challenging problem concerning Triticum L., which can be solved by using wild relatives of wheat, in particular, Aegilops tauschii Coss., in breeding programs. This species, believed to be the donor of D genome of common wheat (T. aestivum L.), is a source of some traits important for breeding. This greatly facilitates the possibility of crossing Ae. tauschii with common wheat. Aegilops L. species are donors of effective genes for resistance to fungal diseases in wheat. For instance, genes that determine resistance to rust agents in common wheat were successfully introgressed from Ae. tauschii into the genome of T. aestivum L. The aim of our study was to identify differences in metabolomic profiles of Ae. tauschii forms (genotypes), resistant or susceptible to such fungal pathogens as Puccinia triticina f. sp. tritici and Erysiphe graminis f. sp. tritici. These indicators may be used as biochemical markers of resistance. A comparative analysis of groups of Ae. tauschii accessions showed that metabolomic profiles of the forms with or without resistance to fungal pathogens differed significantly in the contents of nonproteinogenic amino acids, polyols, phytosterols, acylglycerols, mono- and oligosaccharides, glycosides, phenolic compounds (hydroquinone, kempferol), etc. This fact was consistent with the previously obtained data on the relationship between Fusarium resistance in oats (Avena sativa L.) and certain components of the metabolomic profile, such as acylglycerols, nonproteinogenic amino acids, galactinol, etc. Thus, our studies once again confirmed the possibility and effectiveness of the use of metabolomic analysis for screening the genetic diversity of accessions in the VIR collection, of Ae. tauschii in particular, in order to identify forms with a set of compounds in their metabolomic profile, which characterize them as resistant. Ae. tauschii accessions with a high content of pipecolic acids, acylglycerols, galactinol, stigmasterol, glycerol, azelaic and pyrogallic acids, campesterol, hydroquinone, etc., can be used for creating wheat and triticale cultivars with high resistance to fungal pathogens causing powdery mildew, brown rust, and yellow rust.
ABSTRACT
A process of infecting the chaffinch nestlings Fringilla coelebs with three analgoid feather mites, Analges passerinus L., 1758, Monojoubertia microphylla (Robin, 1877), and Pteronyssoides striatus (Robin, 1977), commonly occurred on this bird species was investigated. 15 nests contained totally 65 nestlings, from 2 to 6 individuals in a brood, have been examined from the day of hatching till 11th day. Observations were held in the neighbourhood of the bird banding station "Rybachy" (Russia, Kaliningrad Province) in June of 1982. Number of mites on alive nestlings taken temporarily from their nest was counted by means of binocular lens under the magnification x12.5 and x25. The nestlings receive the mites from the chaffinch female during the night time, when the female sits together with the young birds and heats them. In the condition of this prolonged direct contact the mites migrate from the female onto the nestlings. As it was shown in our study of seasonal dynamics of mites on the chaffinch (Mironov, 2000), the chaffinch female only gives its mites to young generation and looses about three quarter of its mite micropopulation during the nesting period (June), hile in the chaffinch males the number of mites continues to increase during all summer. The infections with three feather mite species happen in the second part of the nestling's stay in the nest. The starting time of this process, its intensity, and sex and age structure of mite micropopulations on the nestlings just before their leaving the nest are different in the mite species examined. These peculiarities of feather mite species are determined by the biology of examined species, and first of all by their morphological characteristic and specialisation to different microhabitats, i.e. certain structural zones of plumage. Pteronyssoides striatus (Pteronyssidae) is rather typical mite specialised to feathers with vanes. In adult birds with completely developed plumage this species occupies the ventral surface of the big upper coverts of primary flight feathers. This species appears on the chaffinch nestlings in a significant number on 7th day. The mites occupy the basal parts of primary flight feathers represented in that moment by the rods only. They sit on practically open and smooth surface of this microhabitat, which is uncommon for them, because the vanes of the big upper coverts are not yet open and also represented by thin rods. During the period of the last 5 days (from 7 to 11th day) the mean number of mites per one nestling increases from 2.3 +/- 0.5 to 17.1 +/- 1.8 mites. Just before the day, when the nestling leave the nest, the tritonymphs absolutely predominate (82.4%) in the micropopulation of P. striatus. Analges passerinus (Analgidae) is specialised to live in the friable layer formed by numerous not-engaged thread barbles of the down feathers and basal parts of the body covert feathers. Mites have special hooks on legs used for hard attaching to the barbles and for fast moving in the friable layer of feathers. On the chaffinch nestlings, these mites appear usually on 8th day, when the rod-like body covert feathers begin to open on apices and form short brushes; however some individuals occur on the skin of nestlings even on 6th day. The mean number of mites per nestling on the 11th day reaches 16.5 +/- 1.4 individuals. The micropopulation of A. passerinus is represented on the nestlings mainly by the females (45.5%), tritonymphs (23.6%) and males (11.5%). Monojobertia microphylla (Proctophyllodidae) is a typical dweller of feathers with large vanes. Mites of this species commonly occupy the ventral surface of primary and secondary flight feathers and also respective big upper covert feathers of wings. M. microphylla appears on the nestlings in a significant number (7.1 +/- 1.2 mites) on 9th day, only when the primary flight feathers already have short vanes about 10 mm in length. In next three days the number of mites increases very fast and reaches on 11th day 60.3 +/- 5.7 mites per nestling. In the micropopulation of this species, the tritonymphs count 38.3%, and the quota of males and females is 25.3% each. The migration of this species goes most intensively, than in two other species. An analitic selection of logistic curves shows, that the increasing of mite number during the process of infection with three mite species may be most adequately described by the sigmoid curves with clearly recognizable levels of saturation, which can be theoretically reached. Indeed, the number of mite individuals being able to migrate onto the nestlings is limited by their number on a respective chaffinch female. In a contrast, the increasing of plumage indices, for instance the length of flight feathers, has almost linear character during the period of observation. The beginning of mite migration is determined by the development of respective microhabitats in the plumage of nestlings, or at least by the development of certain structure elements of plumage, where mites are able to attach for a while, before that moment, when the nestlings will develop the plumage completely and begin to fly. In three mite species examined, the process of infection was performed by older stages, namely by the imago and/or tritonymphs. This can be explained by two reasons. On the one hand, the older stages are most active in their movement, resistible and able to survive successfully on new host individuals. On the other hand, the older stage are ready for the reproduction or will be ready after one moulting. The older stages of mites can quickly create a large and self-supporting micropopulations on the birds, therefore this strategy ensures a successful subsequent existence of the parasite species. In cases, when mites (A. passerinus, M. microphylla) migrate into the respective microhabitats structurally corresponding to their normal microhabitats on adult birds, the micropopulations of these mite species include a significant or dominant quota of females and males. When the normal microhabitat is not yet formed, feather mites migrate into neighboring structure elements of plumage, where they can survive and wait for the development of normal microhabitat, to which they are well adapted. Therefore, in the case of P. striatus, its micropopulations on the chaffinch nestlings are represented mainly by the tritonymphs.
