Non-targeted GC-MS metabolomics-based differences in Indica rice seeds of different varieties

Abstract Rice seeds of different varieties presented different metabolic profiles. In the study, we detected the metabolites in rice seeds of six varieties (CH, HM, NX, YX, HY, and MX) via non-targeted GC-MS. Our results showed that, amino acids, sugars, and organic acids showed higher proportions in seeds of all different varieties, and contributed more to distinguishing CH from the others; compared to CH, amino acids with the greatest changes in content were phenylalanine of NX, and glycine of YX, sugar with the greatest changes in content was 1,5-anhydroglucitol of NX, and glutamate and aspartate of both NX and YX, and lactulose of HM, HY, and MX were up-regulated. Due to the biological functions of these amino acids and sugars, these indicated that compared to CH, rice of NX were more conducive to metabolism of carbohydrate and fat, and healthy growth maintenance in the human body, but might be not suitable for the patients with diabetes, rice of YX was not suitable as potential glycine supplement, rice of HM, HY, and MX were more suitable as potential lactulose supplement, and content of main storage proteins in seeds of NX and YX were higher than those of CH. The study provided new thoughts for the differences research of different rice varieties.