MTBLS338: Plant-to-plant variability in root metabolite profiles of 19 Arabidopsis thaliana accessions is substance-class dependent

Based on: Mönchgesang, S.; Strehmel, N.; Trutschel, D.; Westphal, L.; Neumann, S.; Scheel, D. Plant-to-Plant Variability in Root Metabolite Profiles of 19 Arabidopsis thaliana Accessions Is Substance-Class-Dependent. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2016, 17, 1565. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms17091565

Natural variation of secondary metabolism between different accessions of Arabidopsis thaliana has been studied extensively. In this study, we extended the natural variation approach by including biological variability and analyzed root metabolic patterns as well as their variability between plants and naturally occurring accessions.

To screen 19 accessions of A. thaliana, comprehensive non-targeted metabolite profiling of single plant root extracts was performed using UPLC/ESI-QTOF-MS and GC/EI-QMS. 98 (GC/MS) and 139 (LC/MS) metabolites were identified at MSI levels one or two, or characterised ad level three.

All metabolic profiles indicated that plant-to-plant-variability is greater than natural variation between accessions and non-biological variation of experimental batches. Ratios of plant-to-plant to total variability were high and distinct for the classes of known secondary metabolites, which are commonly subjected to natural variation analysis. None of the investigated accessions displayed a specifically high or low biological variability for these substance classes.