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Metabolite profiles of essential oils in citrus peels and their taxonomic implications

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Abstract

China is an important center of origin for the genus Citrus L. of the family Rutaceae and is rich in wild Citrus species. The taxonomy of Citrus has been a subject of controversy for more than a half century. We propose that the metabolite profiles of Chinese native Citrus species can be used for classification and understanding of the taxonomic relationships within the Citrus germplasm. In this study, triplicate gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) metabolite profiles of 20 Citrus species/varieties were acquired, including 10 native varieties originating in China. R-(+)-limonene, α-pinene, sabinene and α-terpinene were found to be major characteristic components of the essential oils analyzed in this study, and these compounds contributed greatly to the metabolic classification. The three basic species of the subgenus Eucitrus (Swingle’s system), i.e., C. reticulata Blanco, C. medica L. and C. grandis Osb., were clearly differentiated based upon their metabolite profiles using hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) and partial least square-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA). All the presumed hybrid genotypes, including sweet orange (C. sinensis Osb.), sour orange (C. aurantium L.), lemon (C. limon Burm.f.), rough lemon (C. jambhiri Lush.), rangpur lime (C. limonia Osb.) and grapefruit (C. paradisi Macf.), were grouped closely together with one of their suggested parent species in the HCA-dendrogram and the PLS-DA score plot. These results clearly demonstrated that the metabolite profiles of Citrus species could be utilized for the taxonomic classification of the genus and are complementary to the existing taxonomic evidence, especially for the identification and differentiation of hybrid species.

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Abbreviations

cpDNA:

Chloroplast DNA

GC–MS:

Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry

HCA:

Hierarchical cluster analysis

LV:

Latent variable

MS:

Mass spectrometry

NMR:

Nuclear magnetic resonance

PCA:

Principal component analysis

PLS:

Partial least square

PLS-DA:

Partial least square-discriminant analysis

RI:

Retention index

TIC:

Total ion chromatogram

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31171930), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (XDJK2014A014), the Graduate Student Innovation Fund of Southwest University to Li Jing (kb2011005), the China Scholarship Council (CSC), Program for Chongqing Innovation Team of University (KJTD201333), and the “111” Project (B12006). LJ and LWS were supported by the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation. LWS was supported in part by National Science Foundation awards (No. 1139489, 1024974 and 1124719).

Conflict of interest

Li Jing, Zhentian Lei, Guiwei Zhang, Alan Cesar Pilon, David V Huhman, Rangjin Xie, Wanpeng Xi, Zhiqin Zhou, and Lloyd W. Sumner declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical statement

This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400716, China

    Li Jing, Guiwei Zhang, Wanpeng Xi & Zhiqin Zhou

  2. Plant Biology Division, The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, 2510 Sam Noble Parkway, Ardmore, OK, 73401, USA

    Li Jing, Zhentian Lei, Alan Cesar Pilon, David V. Huhman & Lloyd W. Sumner

  3. Key Laboratory of Horticulture Science for Southern Mountainous Regions, Ministry of Education, Chongqing, 400715, China

    Li Jing, Guiwei Zhang, Wanpeng Xi & Zhiqin Zhou

  4. Nucleus of Bioassays, Biosynthesis and Ecophysiology of Natural Products -NuBBE, São Paulo State University - UNESP, Rua Prof. Francisco Degni 55, Araraquara, SP, 14800-900, Brazil

    Alan Cesar Pilon

  5. Citrus Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences/Southwest University, Chongqing, 400712, China

    Rangjin Xie

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  1. Li Jing
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  2. Zhentian Lei
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Correspondence to Zhiqin Zhou or Lloyd W. Sumner.

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Jing, L., Lei, Z., Zhang, G. et al. Metabolite profiles of essential oils in citrus peels and their taxonomic implications. Metabolomics 11, 952–963 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11306-014-0751-x

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