Acta Agriculturae Zhejiangensis ›› 2026, Vol. 38 ›› Issue (6): 1198-1208.DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1004-1524.20250624

• Horticultural Science • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Effects of CaCl2 on growth and active substance content in broccoli sprouts

CHEN Mengwei1(), ZHANG Chenglei1, LIANG Xu2, XIE Yongdong3,*(), YIN Xinxing1   

  1. 1 College of Agriculture and Bioengineering, Taizhou Vocational College of Science & Technology, Taizhou 318020, Zhejiang, China
    2 Taizhou Huangyan Yongtuo Land Development Co., Ltd., Taizhou 318020, Zhejiang, China
    3 Institute of Agro-Products Processing, Chengdu Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Chengdu 611130, China
  • Received:2025-09-28 Online:2026-06-25 Published:2026-07-14

Abstract:

To investigate the effects of CaCl2 seed soaking on the growth and bioactive compound content of broccoli sprouts and to elucidate the regulatory mechanism of CaCl2 on glucosinolates at the molecular level, broccoli seeds were used as the test material. Seed soaking treatments were performed using 0 (CK), 1.0, 2.5, 5.0 and 10.0 mmol·L-1CaCl2 solutions. Changes in growth indices, nutrient content, and glucosinolate content of the sprouts under different treatments were compared, and the expression levels of key genes involved in aliphatic glucosinolate biosynthesis were detected using real-time quantitative PCR. The results showed that CaCl2 treatments at different concentrations all promoted the elongation growth of broccoli sprouts, but had no significant effect on biomass, vitamin C content, and chlorophyll content. Low-concentration CaCl2 treatments increased the contents of soluble sugars, soluble proteins, carotenoids and aliphatic glucosinolates. All CaCl2 treatments upregulated the transcription levels of MYB28, Elong, CYP79F1, CYP83A1, UGT74B1 and ST5b genes in broccoli sprouts. The comprehensive evaluation scores based on principal component analysis showed the ranking of overall effects for the five treatments as follows: 2.5 mmol·L-1CaCl2>1.0 mmol·L-1CaCl2>CK>10.0 mmol·L-1CaCl2>5.0 mmol·L-1CaCl2. In conclusion, CaCl2 seed soaking can promote the expression of genes related to aliphatic glucosinolate biosynthesis in broccoli sprouts, with the 2.5 mmol·L-1CaCl2 treatment showing the best effect in promoting growth and the accumulation of bioactive compounds.

Key words: CaCl2, broccoli sprouts, glucosinolates, gene expression, bioactive compound

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