title: Exploring the Arabidopsis sulfur metabolome.
abstract: Sulfur plays a crucial role in protein structure and function, redox status and plant biotic stress responses. However, our understanding of sulfur metabolism is limited to identified pathways. In this study, we used a high-resolution Fourier transform mass spectrometric approach in combination with stable isotope labeling to describe the sulfur metabolome of Arabidopsis thaliana. Databases contain roughly 300 sulfur compounds assigned to Arabidopsis. In comparative analyses, we showed that the overlap of the expected sulfur metabolome and the mass spectrometric data was surprisingly low, and we were able to assign only 37 of the 300 predicted compounds. By contrast, we identified approximately 140 sulfur metabolites that have not been assigned to the databases to date. We used our method to characterize the γ-glutamyl transferase mutant ggt4-1, which is involved in the vacuolar breakdown of glutathione conjugates in detoxification reactions. Although xenobiotic substrates are well known, only a few endogenous substrates have been described. Among the specifically altered sulfur-containing masses in the ggt4-1 mutant, we characterized one endogenous glutathione conjugate and a number of further candidates for endogenous substrates. The small percentage of predicted compounds and the high proportion of unassigned sulfur compounds identified in this study emphasize the need to re-evaluate our understanding of the sulfur metabolome.
authors.affiliation: Lehrstuhl für Botanik, Technische Universität München, Emil-Ramann Straße 4, D-85354, Freising, Germany.
authors.forename: Katharina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Gläser
authors.forename: Basem
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kanawati
authors.forename: Tobias
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kubo
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Schmitt-Kopplin
authors.forename: Erwin
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Grill
mesh_terms: D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D005978:Glutathione / Q000378:metabolism; D007553:Isotope Labeling; D013058:Mass Spectrometry; D055442:Metabolome; D009154:Mutation; D013455:Sulfur / Q000378:metabolism*; D014617:Vacuoles / Q000378:metabolism; D005723:gamma-Glutamyltransferase / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; D013455:Sulfur; D005723:gamma-Glutamyltransferase; D005978:Glutathione
keywords: Arabidopsis thaliana; GGT4; ICR-FTMS; glutathione conjugates; isotope labeling; metabolomics; γ-glutamyl transferase