Untargeted Metabolomics Analysis Reveals Differential Accumulation of Flavonoids Between Yellow-Seeded and Black-Seeded Rapeseed Varieties

Rapeseed (Brassica napus) is an important oilseed crop and yellow-seeded and black-seeded varieties have different metabolite profiles, which determines the quality and edibility of their oil. In this study, we performed a non-targeted metabolomics analysis of seeds from four rapeseed varieties at eight developmental stages. This analysis identified 4540 features, of which 366 were annotated as known metabolites. The content of these metabolites was closely related to seed developmental stage, with the critical period for seed metabolite accumulation being between 10 and 20 days after pollination. Through a comparative analysis, we identified 18 differentially abundant flavonoid features between yellow-seeded and black-seeded rapeseed varieties. By combining the flavonoid data with transcriptome data, we constructed a gene regulatory network that may reflect the accumulation of differentially abundant flavonoid features. Finally, we predicted 38 unknown features as being flavonoid features through molecular networking. These results provide valuable metabolomics information for the breeding of yellow-seeded rapeseed varieties.