Exact mass GC-MS analysis: protocol, database, advantages and
application to plant metabolic profiling
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.