Spatially resolved metabolomics reveals variety-specific metabolic changes in banana pulp during postharvest senescence

Zhibin Yin; Tao Dong; Wenjie Huang; Mingyi Du; Dong Chen; Alisdair R Fernie; Ganjun Yi; Shijuan Yan

doi:10.1016/j.fochx.2022.100371

Spatially resolved metabolomics reveals variety-specific metabolic changes in banana pulp during postharvest senescence

Food Chem X. 2022 Jun 20:15:100371. doi: 10.1016/j.fochx.2022.100371. eCollection 2022 Oct 30.

Authors

Zhibin Yin¹, Tao Dong², Wenjie Huang¹, Mingyi Du³, Dong Chen³, Alisdair R Fernie⁴, Ganjun Yi², Shijuan Yan¹

Affiliations

¹ Guangdong Key Laboratory for Crop Germplasm Resources Preservation and Utilization, Agro-biological Gene Research Center, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China.
² Institute of Fruit Tree Research, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Key Laboratory of South Subtropical Fruit Biology and Genetic Resource Utilization (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs), Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Tropical and Subtropical Fruit Tree Research, Guangzhou, 510640, China.
³ Key Laboratory of Natural Pesticide and Chemical Biology of the Ministry of Education, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China.
⁴ Max-Planck-Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, Am Muhlenberg 1, Potsdam-Golm 14476, Germany.

Abstract

Banana is one of most popular fruits globally due to health-promoting and disease-preventing effects, yet little is known about in situ metabolic changes across banana varieties. Here, we integrated gold nanoparticle (AuNP)-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry imaging (LDI-MSI) and metabolomics to investigate the spatiotemporal distribution and levels of metabolites within Brazil and Dongguan banana pulps during postharvest senescence. Metabolomics results indicated that both postripening stages and banana varieties contribute to metabolite levels. Benefiting from improved ionization efficiency of small-molecule metabolites and less peak interference, we visualized the spatiotemporal distribution of sugars, amino acids (AAs) and monoamines within pulps using AuNP-assisted LDI-MSI for the first time, revealing that AAs and monoamines exclusively accumulated in the middle region near the seed zone. Monosaccharides and di/trisaccharides were generally distributed across entire pulps but exhibited different accumulation patterns. These findings provide a guide for breeding new varieties and improving extraction efficiency of bioactive compounds.

Keywords: Amino acid; Banana; Mass spectrometry imaging; Metabolomics; Monoamine; Soluble sugars.