Liquid chromatography/time-of-flight mass spectrometry for the analysis of plant samples: A method for simultaneous screening of common cofactors or nucleotides and application to an engineered plant line

Intense efforts are currently devoted to improve plant metabolomic analyses so as to describe more accurately the whole picture of metabolic pathways. Analyses based on liquid chromatography/time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LC–TOF) are now widely distributed among plant science laboratories. However, the use of reliable, sensitive LC–TOF methods to identify and quantify micromolar or inframicromolar key metabolites is often impeded by the sensitivity of the technique to sample preparation or chromatographic conditions. Typically, the sample matrix has a substantial influence on ionization efficiency and therefore, on the detectability of such compounds. Here, we describe a new method to analyze simultaneously 23 nucleotides and cofactors from plant extracts, taking advantage of solid-phase extraction (SPE) prior to injection. The influence of common m/z fragments in several metabolites and adducts is considered. We applied this method to characterise metabolic intermediates of NAD biosynthesis in Arabidopsis thaliana, using a wild-type and an engineered transgenic plant line that produces bacterial quinolinate phosphoribosyl transferase (nadc). We show that sample pre-purification with SPE is strictly required not only for compound quantification and identification but also to allow ionization of matrix-sensitive compounds (e.g. nicotinamide) or alleviate fragmentation of others (e.g. NAD). When exogenous substrate quinolinate was infiltrated into Arabidopsis leaves to increase the natural content in downstream metabolites, a clear correlation between intermediates of NAD biosynthesis was seen, showing the accuracy of our method for quantification in biological samples. Nadc plants only showed very modest changes in NAD-related metabolites and furthermore, they were associated with slightly lower photosynthetic performance and ATP production.