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Novel Quantitative Metabolomic Approach for the Study of Stress Responses of Plant Root Metabolism
journal contribution
posted on 2014-12-05, 00:00 authored by Kefeng Li, Xu Wang, Venkataramana R. Pidatala, Chi-Peng Chang, Xiaohong CaoQuantitative metabolomics (qMetabolomics)
is a powerful tool for
understanding the intricate metabolic processes involved in plant
abiotic stress responses. qMetabolomics is hindered by the limited
coverage and high cost of isotopically labeled standards. In this
study, we first selected 271 metabolites which might play important
roles in abiotic stress responses as the targets and established a
comprehensive LC–MS/MS based qMetabolomic method. We then developed
a novel metabolic labeling method using E. coli–Saccharomyces cerevisiae two-step cultivation for the production
of uniformly 13C-labeled metabolites as internal standards.
Finally, we applied the developed qMetabolomic method to investigate
the influence of Pb stress on maize root metabolism. The absolute
concentration of 226 metabolites in maize roots was accurately quantified
in a single run within 30 min. Our study also revealed that glycolysis,
purine, pyrimidine, and phospholipids were the main metabolic pathways
in maize roots involved in Pb stress response. To our knowledge, this
is the most comprehensive qMetabolomic method for plant metabolomics
thus far. We developed a simple and inexpensive metabolic labeling
method which dramatically expanded the availability of uniformly 13C labeled metabolites. Our findings also provided new insights
of maize metabolic responses to Pb stress.