Building an empirical mass spectra libray for non-targeted metabolomics analysis in plants by UHPLC-QTOF MS

Abstract

This project is based on the building of an empirical mass spectra library with the aim of confirming hormone structures in semi-quantitative non-targeted metabolomics analysis in plants. The library was composed by twenty phenolic compounds: kaempferol, apigenin, neohesperedin, ferulic acid, caffeic acid, chlorogenic acid, 3-dehidroshikimate, 4-coumaryl alcohol, capsaicin, (-) epicatechin, ampelopsin, taxifolin, gentisic acid, coumarine, quercitrin, epigallocatechin, skimmianine, catechin, sinapic acid and naringin. Ultra-high performance-liquid chromatography coupled to hybrid quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrum (UHPLC-QTOF MS) has been used in order to acquire retention time at the same time that low and high collision energy spectra. On the other hand, the effectiveness of the extraction method used for this type of analysis in the analytes of the library is checked. For this purpose, samples of Arabidopsis thaliana and Solanum lycopersicum (tomato) spiked at several levels were analysed and their spectra compared with those of pure standards at the same levels.

Finally, the library has been applied to an on-going research consisting in the metabolomic comparison between adult and seedlings plants of Arabidopsis thaliana treated with I3CA against the infection of P. cucumerina.