Antioxidant response of cucumber (Cucumis sativus) exposed to nano copper pesticide: Quantitative determination via LC-MS/MS

Abstract

Targeted metabolomics aims to provide a new approach to investigate metabolites and gather both qualitative and quantitative information. We describe a protocol for extraction and analysis of plant metabolites, specifically 13 secondary metabolites (antioxidants) using liquid chromatography coupled to triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), with high linearity (R2 > 0.99) and reproducibility (0.23-6.23 R%) with low limits of detection (>0.001 ng/mL) and quantification (>0.2 ng/mL). The protocol was applied to study the antioxidant response of cucumber plants exposed to nanocopper pesticide. Dose-dependent changes in antioxidant concentrations were found, and 10 antioxidants were significantly consumed to scavenge reactive oxygen species, protecting plants from damage. Levels of three antioxidants were up-regulated, as a response to the depletion of the other antioxidants, signaling activation of the defense system. We demonstrated that the reported LC-MS/MS method provides a quantitative analysis of antioxidants in plant tissues, for example to investigate interactions between plants and nanomaterials.

Responses of Tomato Plants under Saline Stress to Foliar Application of Copper Nanoparticles

“…The increase in the antioxidant activity induced by the application of Cu NPs found in the present work reaffirms the conclusions by Fu et al and Huang et al [55,56], who proposed that NPs stimulate the concentration and activity of antioxidants. This biostimulation may be due to the interaction of NPs with intracellular structures as a result of their high reactivity and ease of penetrating cell barriers [26] by endocytosis, pore formation, transport proteins, or plasmodesmata [27].…”

Effect of pulsed light on postharvest disease control-related metabolomic variation in melon (Cucumis melo) artificially inoculated with Fusarium pallidoroseum

“…[41]. These classes of phenolic acids were also reported in melon by Mallek-Ayadi et al [42] and other studies on Cucumis sativus showed the same presence of this class of compounds [43].…”

Omics to address the opportunities and challenges of nanotechnology in agriculture

“…Advances in QqQ in single reaction monitoring (SRM) mode allows robust absolute quantification of metabolites with high sensitivity and selectivity, even at trace levels with relatively high throughput. Column chemistry and its retention mechanism are extremely critical for targeted analysis of metabolites using LC-MS; and hence, reverse phase (RP) and hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) are used to cover broad range of metabolites with contrasting polarity (Huang et al, 2018(Huang et al, , 2019Jorge et al, 2016). Targeted analysis is particularly useful as a follow up from untargeted analysis, in order to focus on specific metabolic pathways or testing application of ENMs in pathogen defense, nutrient acquisition, photosynthetic efficiency or productivity.…”

“…Here, we have reviewed fifteen publications that have applied untargeted metabolomics to elucidate underlying mechanisms in plants exposed to various metal/metal oxide nanoparticles (nCu, nCu(OH) 2 , nCeO 2 , nFe 3 O 4 , nTiO 2 , nSiO 2 , nAg and nCdO,) by acute or chronic application via root or leaves (Table 1). A few studies have also employed targeted metabolomics on selected group of metabolites, based on the findings from untargeted analyses (Huang et al, 2018(Huang et al, , 2019Majumdar et al, 2019).…”