Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Jul 14;11(7):687.
doi: 10.3390/life11070687.

Metabolome Profiling of Eight Chinese Yam (Dioscorea polystachya Turcz.) Varieties Reveals Metabolite Diversity and Variety Specific Uses

Xiaoxuan Zeng  1   2 , Dahui Liu  1 , Luqi Huang  1   2
Affiliations

Metabolome Profiling of Eight Chinese Yam (Dioscorea polystachya Turcz.) Varieties Reveals Metabolite Diversity and Variety Specific Uses

Xiaoxuan Zeng et al. Life (Basel). .

Abstract

The Chinese yam (Dioscorea polystachya Turcz.) is an underutilized orphan tuber crop. However, in China it has been used in traditional medicine and food for centuries due to the presence of high starch, protein, fiber, and biologically active compounds. Knowledge on the metabolomic profiles of Chinese yam varieties is needed to explore the underutilized metabolites and variety specific uses. Here, the metabolome of eight Chinese yam varieties that are cultivated in different Chinese regions was profiled. A total of 431 metabolites belonging to different biochemical classes was detected. The majority of detected metabolites were classified as amino acids and derivatives. The different yam varieties offer unique uses; e.g., Hebei Ma Yam, Henan Huai Yam, and Henan Wild Yam were the most metabolically enriched and suitable as food and medicine. Yams from Hubei region had comparable nutritional profiles, which is most probably due to their geographical origin. Specifically, Henan Wild Yam had the highest concentrations of diosgenin, vitamins, and polysaccharides. Overall, this study presents a metabolome reference for D. polystachya varieties.

Keywords: Chinese yam; Dioscorea spp.; ESI-Q TRAP-MS/MS; amino acid biosynthesis in yam; diosgenin; riboflavin; yam metabolite atlas.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Tubers of different Dioscorea polystachya (yam) varieties. (A) Hubei Qichun Jiaozhang Yam (JZ), (B) Hubei Qichun Yam (QC), (C) Hebei Ma Yam (MS), (D) Shandong Tiegun Yam (ST), (E) Henan Huai Yam (HS), (F) Henan Tiegun Yam (TG), (G) Henan Wild Yam (WS), and (H) Jiangxi Ruichang Yam (RC). The bars are equal to 10 cm in each figure panel.
Figure 2
Figure 2
(A) Principal component analysis, (B) heatmap of metabolite concentrations, (C) Pearson correlation coefficients between metabolite profiles of replicates and treatments, and (D) summary of differentially accumulated metabolites between different Chinese Yam varieties. The variety names are Hubei Qichun Jiaozhang Yam (JZ), Hubei Qichun Yam (QC), Hebei Ma Yam (MS), Shandong Tiegun Yam (ST), Henan Huai Yam (HS), Henan Tiegun Yam (TG), Henan Wild Yam (WS), and Jiangxi Ruichang Yam (RC).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Metabolite count on compound-class basis in eight yam varieties; Hebei Ma Yam (MS), Henan Huai Yam (HS), Henan Tiegun Yam (TG), Henan Wild Yam (WS), Hubei Qichun Jiaozhang Yam (JZ), Hubei Qichun Yam (QC), Jiangxi Ruichang Yam (RC), and Shandong Tiegun Yam (ST).
Figure 4
Figure 4
K-means diagram of the differentially accumulated metabolites between eight yam varieties. The abscissa represents the name of the sample, the ordinate represents the relative content of standardized metabolites, sub-class represents the number of the metabolite category with the same changing trend, and metabolite represents the number of metabolites in the category (metabolites within each sub-class are given in Supplementary Table S2). The eight yam varieties are Hebei Ma Yam (MS), Henan Huai Yam (HS), Henan Tiegun Yam (TG), Henan Wild Yam (WS), Hubei Qichun Jiaozhang Yam (JZ), Hubei Qichun Yam (QC), Jiangxi Ruichang Yam (RC), and Shandong TiegunYam (ST).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Contents of metabolites that were enriched in starch and sucrose biosynthesis pathway. Y-axis shows the amount of each metabolite, and the x-axis represents the eight yam varieties i.e., Hebei Ma Yam (MS), Henan Huai Yam (HS), Henan Tiegun Yam (TG), Henan Wild Yam (WS), Hubei Qichun Jiaozhang Yam (JZ), Hubei Qichun Yam (QC), Jiangxi Ruichang Yam (RC), and Shandong Tiegun Yam (ST). The error bars represent standard deviation.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Contents of (A) diosgenin-3-O-glucoside and (B) gracillin in the tubers of eight yam varieties. Y-axis shows the amount of each metabolite, and the x-axis represents the eight yam varieties i.e., Hebei Ma Yam (MS), Henan Huai Yam (HS), Henan Tiegun Yam (TG), Henan Wild Yam (WS), Hubei Qichun Jiaozhang Yam (JZ), Hubei Qichun Yam (QC), Jiangxi Ruichang Yam (RC), and Shandong Tiegun Yam (ST). The error bars represent standard deviation.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Coursey D.G. Yams. An Account of the Nature, Origins, Cultivation and Utilisation of the Useful Members of the Dioscoreaceae. Humanities Press; New York, NY, USA: 1968.
    1. Zhang L., Bai B., Liu X., Wang Y., Li M., Zhao D. α-Glucosidase inhibitors from Chinese yam (Dioscorea opposita Thunb.) Food Chem. 2011;126:203–206. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2010.10.100. - DOI
    1. Zhang Z., Gao W., Wang R., Huang L. Changes in main nutrients and medicinal composition of Chinese yam (Dioscorea opposita) tubers during storage. J. Food Sci. Technol. 2014;51:2535–2543. doi: 10.1007/s13197-012-0776-y. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Babil P., Kondo S., Iwata H., Kushikawa S., Shiwachi H. Intra-specific ploidy variations in cultivated Chinese yam (Dioscorea polystachya Turcz.) Trop. Agric. Dev. 2013;57:101–107.
    1. Wu Z.-G., Jiang W., Nitin M., Bao X.-Q., Chen S.-L., Tao Z.-M. Characterizing diversity based on nutritional and bioactive compositions of yam germplasm (Dioscorea spp.) commonly cultivated in China. J. Food Drug Anal. 2016;24:367–375. doi: 10.1016/j.jfda.2015.12.003. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources