13C isotope-labeled metabolomes allowing for improved compound annotation and relative quantification in liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry-based metabolomic research

Anal Chem. 2009 Aug 1;81(15):6546-51. doi: 10.1021/ac900979e.

Abstract

Metabolomics is rapidly becoming an integral part of many life science studies ranging from disease diagnostics to systems biology. However, a number of problems such as the discrimination of biological from non-biological signals, efficient compound annotation, and reliable quantification are still not satisfactorily solved in untargeted LC-MS-based metabolomics research. Extending our previous work on direct infusion-based metabolomics, we here describe a (13)C isotope labeling strategy in combination with an Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance Mass Spectrometry-based approach (UPLC-FTICR MS) which provides a technological platform offering solutions to a number of the above-mentioned problems. We further demonstrate that the use of a fully labeled metabolome is not only beneficial for high end mass spectrometers, such as that used in this study but also provides a considerable improvement to every other mass spectrometry-based metabolomic platform.

MeSH terms

  • Arabidopsis / growth & development
  • Arabidopsis / metabolism
  • Arabidopsis Proteins / analysis*
  • Arabidopsis Proteins / metabolism
  • Carbon Radioisotopes*
  • Chromatography, Liquid*
  • Fourier Analysis*
  • Metabolomics / methods*
  • Nanotechnology
  • Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization / methods*

Substances

  • Arabidopsis Proteins
  • Carbon Radioisotopes