Location: Food Processing and Sensory Quality Research
Project Number: 6054-41000-112-005-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Jul 1, 2022
End Date: Jun 30, 2026
Objective:
Cooperator will determine the hormone activity (estrogen receptor (ER), androgen receptor (AR), glucocorticoid receptor (GR) and or progesterone receptor (PR)) of isolated compounds, extracts and activated foods from soybean, sugarcane, and rice using cell based and other in vitro methods.
To determine beneficial activities using the effects of activated foods and isolated compounds from rice, soybean, and sugarcane in vitro.
Approach:
The ARS will obtain plant phytoalexins as described below and then provide samples for Xavier to test in cell assays.
Soybean seeds and pods will be treated with either a yeast extract, Aspergillus sojae inoculum, or UV-B irradiation for induction of the glyceollins. The seeds will then be stored for 48-72 hours, dried (optional step to be determined at the time), and defatted (POS Pilot Plant). Development of new methods for induction of glyceollins will focus on the use of high powered UV-B irradiation. The addition of yeast or A. sojae inoculum could alter flavor of a processed soy food and UV-B treatments have the potential for eliminating could eliminate this problem. Soybean seeds (cut, chopped and sliced) treated with UV-B irradiation will be compared with yeast and A. sojae treated seeds for glyceollin content, and optimal protocols will be developed to purify maximal amounts of glyceollin.
Lab procedures indicate that A. sojae induces the largest amount of glyceollin when compared to other methods. Initial scale up of soybean seeds will be treated with A. sojae and used for the isolation of 10 g of glyceollin mixture. Development of new procedures will be conducted using commercially available Preparative HPLC.
Xavier will perform in vitro cell assays that will screen plant extracts and isolated compounds for beneficial health effects. Methods will determine if activated foods can target gene pathways that would lead to improved health (ER, AR, GR, PR). In vitro assays may include the t47DkbLuc, DAkbLuc and other nuclear receptor specific reporter gene assays as well as the MCF-7 E3 and other proliferation an survival assays. Xavier will also perform molecular modeling simulations that compare the structure of phyto-chemicals in the study to known estrogens, androgens, progestins, corticosteroids and to the binding site of nuclear receptor targets.
