Untargeted metabotyping to study phenylpropanoid diversity in crop plants

Abstract

Plant genebanks constitute a key resource for breeding to ensure crop yield under changing environmental conditions. Because of their roles in a range of stress responses, phenylpropanoids are promising targets. Phenylpropanoids comprise a wide array of metabolites; however, studies regarding their diversity and the underlying genes are still limited for cereals. The assessment of barley diversity via genotyping-by-sequencing is in rapid progress. Exploring these resources by integrating genetic association studies to in-depth metabolomic profiling provides a valuable opportunity to study barley phenylpropanoid metabolism; but poses a challenge by demanding large-scale approaches. Here, we report an LC-PDA-MS workflow for barley high-throughput metabotyping. Without prior construction of a speciesspecific library, this method produced phenylpropanoid-enriched metabotypes with which the abundance of putative metabolic features was assessed across hundreds of samples in a single-processed data matrix. The robustness of the analytical performance was tested using a standard mix and extracts from two selected cultivars: Scarlett and Barke. The large-scale analysis of barley extracts showed (1) that barley flag leaf profiles were dominated by glycosylation derivatives of isovitexin, isoorientin, and isoscoparin; (2) proved the workflow's capability to discriminate within genotypes; (3) highlighted the role of glycosylation in barley phenylpropanoid diversity. Using the barley S42IL mapping population, the workflow proved useful for metabolic quantitative trait loci purposes. The protocol can be readily applied not only to explore the barley phenylpropanoid diversity represented in genebanks but also to study species whose profiles differ from those of cereals: the crop Helianthus annuus (sunflower) and the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana.

Integrated metabolomic and transcriptomic analysis reveals the role of phenylpropanoid biosynthesis pathway in tomato roots during salt stress

“…This leads to the downstream specific synthetic pathway to different phenylpropanoid metabolites, including lignans, flavonoids, coumarins, terpenoids, anthocyanins, etc ( Yao et al., 2021 ). Phenylpropanoids are ubiquitous in plants, and these secondary metabolites, which share a hydroxyl aromatic ring ( Boudet, 2007 ; Garibay-Hernandez et al., 2021 ), play an active function in plant growth and development processes and in response to adversity stresses, such as acting as plant antitoxins, stress protection factors, signaling molecules, generating flower and fruit color, and cell composition ( Baxter and Stewart, 2014 ; Kim et al., 2020 ; Bauters et al., 2021 ). We discovered that the pathway of phenylpropanoid biosynthesis in S. lycopersicum roots changed significantly under different salt stress periods, and the DEGs and DAMs obtained in this pathway were highly correlated, and the analysis of this regulatory pathway is important for studying the molecular mechanism of S. lycopersicum response against salt stress.…”

Metabolomic and transcriptomic analyses of yellow-flowered crocuses to infer alternative sources of saffron metabolites

“…The MS analyses were performed in positive and negative ionization modes. Small molecules (i.e., safranal, picrocrocin, flavonoids; 50-1000 m/z ) were analyzed using the MS1 and MS/MS settings for barley and sunflower phenylpropanoids described in [ 52 ]. Large molecules (i.e., crocins; 50-1500 m/z ) were analyzed with the MS1 settings in positive ionization mode for anthocyanins as described in [ 52 ].…”

Responses of Aroma Related Metabolic Attributes of Opisthopappus longilobus Flowers to Environmental Changes

“…Phenylpropanoid homeostasis between the different branches of phenylpropanoid metabolism exhibits extraordinary complexity and a high-level of plasticity during successive developmental stages in response to environmental stimuli and changes [39,40]. Lignin encapsulates carbohydrates composed of cellulose and hemicellulose to form a composite wood fiber barrier to resist the attack and destruction of plant tissues by microorganisms and the surrounding environment [41].…”