Factors affecting health-beneficial compounds in soybean

营养食品和功能食品的市场正在迅速增长，因为它们在治疗和预防几种重要疾病方面的潜力得到了承认。大豆[Glyine max(L.)[MERR.]含有几种公认对健康有益的植物化学物质，包括异黄酮类和皂苷类，据报道它们具有抗动脉粥样硬化、抗肿瘤、抗氧化、雌激素和抗微生物活性。到目前为止，研究的重点是异黄酮类，然而，大豆皂苷是其他对健康有益的化合物。虽然各种大豆有益健康的化合物对人类健康的影响一直是激烈的研究努力和辩论的主题，但关于它们在植物中的含量和特征如何受到环境因素影响的研究数据仍然有限。拟议的研究计划旨在了解影响大豆中有益健康化合物浓度的环境因素，重点是大豆皂苷和异黄酮类。具体地说，我将进行田间试验，以确定环境因素对大豆中大豆皂苷B浓度的影响最大，也确定发育阶段最敏感。最终，所获得的结果将允许建立模型，从而能够预测田间种植的大豆中的大豆皂苷浓度。在受控环境中，我将重点研究温度对大豆皂苷和异黄酮的影响。温度一直被认为是影响大豆中几种有益健康化合物积累的最重要的非生物因素之一，包括异黄酮类化合物。将研究不同温度处理的时空响应，重点是种子发育的两个主要部分(即子叶和下胚轴)的响应，这两个部分在积累有益健康的植物化学物质方面存在很大差异。全球基因表达将使用RNAseq进行研究，同时靶向代谢物(即大豆皂苷、异黄酮类及其前体)将被量化。转录组分析的结果将与感兴趣的代谢物的量化有关，以确定温度影响大豆中有益健康化合物积累的机制。这项研究计划将增加我们对大豆中重要的有益健康化合物的影响因素的了解，这将允许生产营养食品和功能食品部门使用的高浓度植物，同时将适销对路的产品的差异降至最低。该计划将有助于开发大豆的新用途，这将导致新的增值市场的开发，并为加拿大农业生产者和相关农业产业创造经济机会。

The market for nutraceuticals and functional foods is rapidly growing, as they are gaining recognition for their potential to treat and protect against several important diseases. Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] contains several phytochemicals with putative health benefits, including isoflavones and saponins, which are reported to have antiatherosclerotic, antitumorial, antioxidative, estrogenic, and antimicrobial activities. Research to date has focused on isoflavones, however, soyasaponins are other compounds with health-beneficial properties. While the impact of various soybean health-beneficial compounds on human health has been the subject of intense research efforts and debate, research data on how their content and profile in plants can be affected by environmental factors remains limited. The proposed research program aims at providing an understanding of environmental factors affecting the concentrations of health-beneficial compounds in soybean, with a focus on soyasaponins and isoflavones. Specifically, I will conduct field experiments to identify environmental factors affecting soyasaponin B concentrations in soybean the most, and also identity stages of development the most susceptible. Ultimately results obtained will allow the construction of models that will permit the prediction of soyasaponin concentrations in field-grown soybeans. In controlled environments, I will focus my research on the impact of temperature on soyasaponins and isoflavones. Temperature has consistently been reported to be one of the most important abiotic factor affecting the accumulation of several health-beneficial compounds in soybeans, including isoflavones. The spatio-temporal response to different temperature treatments will be studied, with a focus on the response of the two main parts of developing seeds (i.e., the cotyledons and the hypocotyl), which largely differ in their accumulation of health-beneficial phytochemicals. Global gene expression will be studied using RNASeq, concurrently targeted metabolites (i.e., soyasaponins, isoflavones, and their precursors) will be quantified. Results from the transcriptome analysis will be related to the quantification of metabolites of interest to determine the mechanism by which temperature affect the accumulation of health-beneficial compounds in soybeans. This research program will increase our understanding of factors affecting important health-beneficial compounds in soybeans, which should allow the production of plants with high concentrations for the nutraceutical and functional food sectors, while minimizing variations in marketable products. This program will contribute to the development of new uses for soybeans, which should lead to the development of new value-added markets and create economic opportunities for Canadian agricultural producers and associated agri-industries.