Biochemical diversity evaluation in chickpea accessions employing mini-core collection

Unlocking the nutritional potential of chickpea: strategies for biofortification and enhanced multinutrient quality

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is a vital grain legume, offering an excellent balance of protein, carbohydrates, fats, fiber, essential micronutrients, and vitamins that can contribute to addressing the global population's increasing food and nutritional demands. Chickpea protein offers a balanced source of amino acids with high bioavailability. Moreover, due to its balanced nutrients and affordable price, chickpea is an excellent alternative to animal protein, offering a formidable tool for combating hidden hunger and malnutrition, particularly prevalent in low-income countries. This review examines chickpea's nutritional profile, encompassing protein, amino acids, carbohydrates, fatty acids, micronutrients, vitamins, antioxidant properties, and bioactive compounds of significance in health and pharmaceutical domains. Emphasis is placed on incorporating chickpeas into diets for their myriad health benefits and nutritional richness, aimed at enhancing human protein and micronutrient nutrition. We discuss advances in plant breeding and genomics that have facilitated the discovery of diverse genotypes and key genomic variants/regions/quantitative trait loci contributing to enhanced macro- and micronutrient contents and other quality parameters. Furthermore, we explore the potential of innovative breeding tools such as CRISPR/Cas9 in enhancing chickpea's nutritional profile. Envisioning chickpea as a nutritionally smart crop, we endeavor to safeguard food security, combat hunger and malnutrition, and promote dietary diversity within sustainable agrifood systems.

Unveiling Diversity for Quality Traits in the Indian Landraces of Horsegram [Macrotyloma uniflorum (Lam.) Verdc.]

Horsegram (Macrotyloma uniflorum [Lam.] Verdc.) is an underutilized pulse crop primarily cultivated in South Asian countries like India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. It offers various nutraceutical properties and demonstrates remarkable resilience to both biotic and abiotic stresses. As a result, it has emerged as a promising crop for ensuring future food and nutritional security. The purpose of this study was to assess the nutritional profile of 139 horsegram germplasm lines obtained from 16 Indian states that were conserved at the National Gene Bank of India. Standard analytical methods, including those provided by the Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC), were used for this investigation. The study revealed substantial variability in essential nutrients, such as protein (ranging from 21.8 to 26.7 g/100 g), starch (ranging from 26.2 to 33.0 g/100 g), total soluble sugars (TSSs) (ranging from 0.86 to 12.1 g/100 g), phenolics (ranging from 3.38 to 11.3 mg gallic acid equivalents (GAEs)/g), and phytic acid content (ranging from 1.07 to 21.2 mg/g). Noteworthy correlations were observed, including a strong positive correlation between sugars and phenols (r = 0.70) and a moderate negative correlation between protein and starch (r = -0.61) among the studied germplasm lines. Principal component analysis (PCA) highlighted that the first three principal components contributed to 88.32% of the total variability, with TSSs, phytates, and phenols emerging as the most significant contributors. The cluster analysis grouped the accessions into five clusters, with cluster III containing the accessions with the most desirable traits. The differential distribution of the accessions from north India into clusters I and III suggested a potential geographical influence on the adaptation and selection of genes. This study identified a panel of promising accessions exhibiting multiple desirable traits. These specific accessions could significantly aid quality breeding programs or be directly released as cultivars if they perform well agronomically.

Validating the Nutraceutical Significance of Minor Millets by Employing Nutritional-Antinutritional Profiling

Millets are group of underutilized cereal crops with higher nutritional values. The present investigation used different classes of minor millets, including barnyard (sava), little (kutki), finger (ragi), kodo and foxtail millets, for evaluation of their nutritional parameters, i.e., the content of proteins, total amino acids, total sugars, insoluble fibers, soluble fibers, total dietary fibers, iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn), along with antinutritional and antioxidant parameters, viz., tannic acid, phytic acid, phenol, flavonoid, proline and 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity. Alpha amylase and alpha glucosidase activity were also thought to elevate millets as a viable staple meal. Foxtail millet showed the maximum inhibition, with an IC50 value of 20.46 ± 1.80 µg mL-1 with respect to α-amylase. The coefficient of correlation between nutritional and antinutritional compositions showed that the starch content was significantly and positively correlated with insoluble fiber (r = 0.465) and dietary fiber (r = 0.487). Moreover, sugar was positively correlated with the phytic acid (r = 0.707), Fe and Zn (r = 0.681) contents. To determine the peptides responsible for anticancer activity, the foxtail protein was subjected to ultrafiltration; it was found that the 3 kDa fraction retained the greatest anticancer activity. Selected millet germplasm line(s) that have the best nutraceutical properties could be used in millet improvement programs.

Chickpea Peptide: A Nutraceutical Molecule Corroborating Neurodegenerative and ACE-I Inhibition

Chickpea seeds are the source of proteins in human nutrition and attribute some nutraceutical properties. Herein, we report the effects of chickpea seed bioactive peptide on albumin, insulin, lactoglobulin and lysozyme amyloid fibril formation. Employing thioflavin T (ThT) assays and circular dichroism (CD), amyloid structural binding transition was experimented to analyze the inhibition of amyloid fibril formation. The purified active peptide with a molecular mass of 934.53 Da was evaluated in vitro for its ACE-I inhibitory, antibacterial, antifungal and antidiabetic activities. Further, in vivo animal studies were carried out in wistar rats for blood pressure lowering action. In hypertensive rats, chickpea peptide decreased 131 ± 3.57 mm of Hg for systolic blood pressure and 86 ± 1.5 mm of Hg for diastolic blood pressure after 8 h intraperitoneal administration. Additionally, the peptide suppressed the fibrillation of amyloid and destabilized the preformed mature fibrils. Data emphasize efficacy of chickpea peptide vis-a-vis ACE-Inhibitory, antibacterial, antifungal, antidiabetic and anti-amyloidogenic activities, allowing us to propose this novel peptide as a suitable candidate for nutraceutical-based drugs and seems the first kind of its nature.

Impact of Dietary Factors on Brugada Syndrome and Long QT Syndrome

A healthy regime is fundamental for the prevention of cardiovascular diseases (CVD). In inherited channelopathies, such as Brugada syndrome (BrS) and Long QT syndrome (LQTS), unfortunately, sudden cardiac death could be the first sign for patients affected by these syndromes. Several known factors are used to stratify the risk of developing cardiac arrhythmias, although none are determinative. The risk factors can be affected by adjusting lifestyle habits, such as a particular diet, impacting the risk of arrhythmogenic events and mortality. To date, the importance of understanding the relationship between diet and inherited channelopathies has been underrated. Therefore, we describe herein the effects of dietary factors on the development of arrhythmia in patients affected by BrS and LQTS. Modifying the diet might not be enough to fully prevent arrhythmias, but it can help lower the risk.

Plant growth promoting bacteria induce anti-quorum-sensing substances in chickpea legume seedling bioassay

Microorganisms and their hosts communicate through an array of signals. Many physiological processes regulated in quorum sensing (QS) are dependent on auto-inducers, like N-acyl-homoserine lactones (AHLs) as in numerous groups of both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. In vitro grown seven-day old chickpea seedlings treated with plant growth promoting bacteria (PGPRs) were used to screen the AHL mimicking and for phytochemical substances like phytohormones and secondary metabolites such as phenolics and flavonoids. Potential anti-quorum sensing (anti-QS) activity surrounding the roots on semi-solid agar lawn of Chromobacterium violaceum (ATCC12742) was observed. Crude protein (4.46-8.30 μg/mL) and methanolic extracts (100 μg/mL) of seedling gave moderate anti-QS activity against CV12742 anti QS bioassay, respectively. Crude protein and methanolic extract of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens (34.00 ± 2.23; 34.00 ± 4.33 mm) and B. subtilis A (27.00 ± 2.10; 3.29 ± 2.16 mm) treated samples showed higher zone of inhibition due to anti-QS activity. Phytohormone analysis using LC-MS for zeatin, auxin and methyl jasmonate (MeJA) indicated that phytohormones were significantly upregulated by 1909.80 ng/g FW, 669.67 ng/g FW and 244.55 ng/g FW, respectively in Pseudomonas brassicacearum treated seedlings compared to control. UHPLC of PGPR treated seedlings showed overly expressed gallic acid, protocatechuic acid, catechin, p-hydroxybenzoic acid, caffeic acid, catechol, vanillin, and ferulic acid in B. amyloliquefaciens treated seedlings compared to others. Enrichment analysis identified significant pathways related to metabolism, biosynthesis of secondary metabolites. The present study indicates that chickpea neutralizes an extensive range of functional responses to AHLs that may play important role in legume host-microbe interactions.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12298-021-01034-x.

Variations in the antioxidant and free radical scavenging under induced heavy metal stress expressed as proline content in chickpea

This study pertains to the effects of heavy metal salts viz., copper (Cu), manganese (Mn), lead (Pb) and zinc (Zn) on the chickpea accession ICC-4812. The salts were given as treatments to the chickpea seeds at various ascending levels of doses till proving toxic. The treatment of 24 h soaked and swollen seeds were then extended to 7 days duration from the date of treatment. Atomic absorption spectrophotometric analysis of bioassay tissue Cicer, showed maximum uptake of 9.41 mg/g and minimum of 1.65 mg/g tissue dry weight for Pb and Zn respectively. The study reveals that enhanced antioxidant responses are associated with substantial proline accumulation indicating induced stress. Ferric reducing antioxidant power assay measuring antioxidant activity was highest in the chickpea seedling treated with Zn, whereas, free radical scavenging activity was highest in the treatments with Mn. The total phenolic and flavonoid contents ranged between 0.24-0.97 and 0.27-1.00 mg/g of dry matter content respectively. Higher Pb and Zn doses seem to elicit higher proline levels therefore, suggesting an extreme condition of induced abiotic stress. Dose dependent protein oxidation coupled with DNA degradation was observed in all treatments, depicting genotoxicity. Unweighted pair-group method arithmetic average analysis presented similarity coefficients between the treatments.