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Exact mass GC-MS analysis: protocol, database, advantages and application to plant metabolic profiling
  • Cyril Abadie,
  • Julie Lalande,
  • Guillaume Tcherkez
Cyril Abadie
Institut de Recherche en Horticulture et Semences

Corresponding Author:cyril.abadie@inrae.fr

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Julie Lalande
Institut de Recherche en Horticulture et Semences
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Guillaume Tcherkez
Institut de Recherche en Horticulture et Semences
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Abstract

Plant metabolomics has been used widely in plant physiology, in particular to analyse metabolic responses to environmental parameters. Derivatization (via trimethylsilylation-methoximation) followed by GC-MS metabolic profiling is a major technique to quantify low molecular weight, common metabolites of primary carbon, sulphur and nitrogen metabolism. There are now excellent opportunities for new generation analyses, using high resolution, exact mass GC-MS spectrometers that are progressively becoming relatively cheap. However, exact mass GC-MS analyses for routine metabolic profiling are not common, there is no dedicated available database. Also, exact mass GC-MS is usually dedicated to structural resolution of targeted secondary metabolites. Here, we present a curated database for exact mass metabolic profiling (made of 336 analytes, 1,064 characteristic exact mass fragments) focused on molecules of primary metabolism. We show advantages of exact mass analyses, in particular to resolve isotopic patterns, localise S-containing metabolites, and avoid identification errors when analytes have common nominal mass peaks in their spectrum. We provide a practical example using leaves of different Arabidopsis ecotypes and show how exact mass GC-MS analysis can be applied to plant samples and identify metabolic profiles.
27 Jun 2022Submitted to Plant, Cell & Environment
27 Jun 2022Submission Checks Completed
27 Jun 2022Assigned to Editor
02 Jul 2022Reviewer(s) Assigned
15 Jul 2022Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
15 Jul 2022Editorial Decision: Revise Minor
19 Jul 20221st Revision Received
21 Jul 2022Submission Checks Completed
21 Jul 2022Assigned to Editor
23 Jul 2022Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
23 Jul 2022Editorial Decision: Accept
Oct 2022Published in Plant, Cell & Environment volume 45 issue 10 on pages 3171-3183. 10.1111/pce.14407