Metabolome analysis of biosynthetic mutants reveals a diversity of metabolic changes and allows identification of a large number of new compounds in Arabidopsis.
Metabolomics is facing a major challenge: the lack of knowledge about metabolites present in a given biological system. Thus, large-scale discovery of metabolites is considered an essential step toward a better understanding of plant metabolism. We show here that the application of a metabolomics approach generating structural information for the analysis of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) mutants allows the efficient cataloging of metabolites. Fifty-six percent of the features that showed significant differences in abundance between seeds of wild-type, transparent testa4, and transparent testa5 plants could be annotated. Seventy-five compounds were structurally characterized, 21 of which could be identified. About 40 compounds had not been known from Arabidopsis before. Also, the high-resolution analysis revealed an unanticipated expansion of metabolic conversions upstream of biosynthetic blocks. Deficiency in chalcone synthase results in the increased seed-specific biosynthesis of a range of phenolic choline esters. Similarly, a lack of chalcone isomerase activity leads to the accumulation of various naringenin chalcone derivatives. Furthermore, our data provide insight into the connection between p-coumaroyl-coenzyme A-dependent pathways. Lack of flavonoid biosynthesis results in elevated synthesis not only of p-coumarate-derived choline esters but also of sinapate-derived metabolites. However, sinapoylcholine is not the only accumulating end product. Instead, we observed specific and sophisticated changes in the complex pattern of sinapate derivatives.
Böttcher
Christoph
C
Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry, Department of Stress and Developmental Biology, 06120 Halle/Saale, Germany.
von Roepenack-Lahaye
Edda
E
Schmidt
Jürgen
J
Schmotz
Constanze
C
Neumann
Steffen
S
Scheel
Dierk
D
Clemens
Stephan
S
D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D002853:Chromatography, Liquid; D017357:Cyclotrons; D005583:Fourier Analysis; D009154:Mutation; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000737:chemistry; D012639:Seeds / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D021241:Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization
D010936:Plant Extracts