Recently, the research team of Professor Xiao Xiang from the School of Food and Biological Engineering of Jiangsu University published a cover article on the internationally famous journal Food & Function (IF 5.396), entitled “Integrated Transcriptions and Metabolomics Unravel the Metallic Pathway Variables for Barley β-glucan before and after Fermentation with L. plantarum DY-1”. Zhang Jiayan, School of Food and Biological Engineering, Jiangsu University, is the first author of the paper, and Professor Xiao Xiang is the corresponding author of the paper.

β-glucan is an important functional factor in barley. The structure and function of barley were changed after fermentation with L. plantarum DY-1. In this paper, the effects of unfermented barley β-glucan (RBG) and fermented barley β-glucan (FBG) on oxidative stress defense and the possible mechanism were investigated in Caenorhabditis elegans. In this paper, different metabolites involved in the regulation of FBG and RBG were screened and identified through metabolomics, and combined with transcriptome data, it was clarified that the difference between FBG and RBG in the regulation of oxidative stress is mainly reflected in the metabolic pathway of arachidonic acid. This study may provide a theoretical basis for the further application of barley β-glucan as antioxidant dietary supplement or food additive.

Professor Xiao Xiang has been devoted to the key and emerging fields of food science, such as the function of food active components and their processing technology innovation, the mechanism of lactic acid bacteria biotransformation and the development of healthy food. Professor Xiao Xiang has been published more than 80 papers in Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, Food Hydrocolloids, Food Research International, Food Chemistry, Food & Function, Journal of Functional Foods and Chinese Journal of Food Science and so on.