Biochemical profiling of phenolic compounds in lentil seed

Lentil is a self-pollinating annual cool season legume with seed coat colours that can be clear, green, tan, gray, brown, or black. The seed coat is a good source for phenolic compounds, which can have health benefits such as anti-oxidant, anti-tumor, and anti-heart disease properties.

Two independent loci in lentil (Ggc and Tgc) determine the basic seed coat colours (brown, gray, tan, green) through the expression of the two alleles at each locus. Part of this project is dedicated to determining if phenolic profiles of different lentil colours are characteristic of specific genetic combinations of these two loci. It has been found that the relationships between seed longevity and colour are influenced by phenolic compounds. Knowing the types of compounds associated with seed longevity during long-term storage may provide strategies for breeding lentils that can be stored for longer amounts of time without much change in the colour of the seed coat.

This project will also use phenolic profiling to compare the profiles of zero-tannin lentil seeds with shut down Tgc gene – because of the tan gene- and normal seeds in which this gene is functioning properly, enabling an understanding of the genes responsible for phenolic production of the pathway involving the Tgc gene. A fast extraction and an optimized liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) analysis will be designed for analyzing different groups of phenolic compounds. After optimization of the method, an analysis will be made of the phenolic compound profile of the seed of a series of lentil genotypes with defined seed coat background colour based on genetic analysis. This could help to determine how Tgc, Ggc, tan affect phenolic compounds production. Also, storage effect on phenolic compounds profile will be monitored.