Sen F, Uncu AO, Uncu AT, Erdeger SN. The trnL (UAA)-trnF (GAA) intergenic spacer is a robust marker of green pea (Pisum sativum L.) adulteration in economically valuable pistachio nuts (Pistacia vera L.).
J Sci Food Agric 2020;
100:3056-3061. [PMID:
32077485 DOI:
10.1002/jsfa.10336]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/28/2020] [Revised: 02/13/2020] [Accepted: 02/19/2020] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Pistachio (Pistacia vera L.) is an expensive culinary nut species; it is therefore susceptible to adulteration for economic profit. Green pea (Pisum sativum L.) kernels constitute the most common material used for adulterating chopped / ground pistachio nuts and pistachio paste. Food genomics enables the species composition of a food sample to be ascertained through DNA analysis. Accordingly, a barcode DNA genotyping approach was used to standardize a test method to identify green pea adulteration in pistachio nuts.
RESULTS
The trnL (UAA)-trnF (GAA) intergenic spacer in the plastid genome was the target analyte in the present study. The barcode locus displayed a significant, discriminatory size difference between pistachio and pea, with amplicon sizes of 449 and 179 bp, respectively. Polymerase chain reaction-capillary electrophoresis (PCR-CE) analysis of the intergenic spacer resulted in the successful identification of species composition in the in-house admixtures, which contained 5% to 30% of green pea.
CONCLUSION
The present work describes a fast and straightforward DNA test that identifies green pea adulteration in pistachio nuts without requiring a statistical data interpretation process. The plastid trnL (UAA)-trnF (GAA) intergenic spacer length widely varies among plant taxa, so the PCR-CE protocol that operates on the intergenic spacer holds the potential to reveal adulteration with a plethora of adulterants. The PCR-CE assay described in the present work can be adopted readily by food-quality laboratories in the public sector or the food industry as an easy and reliable method to analyze pistachio authenticity. © 2020 Society of Chemical Industry.
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