Metabolomic Analysis of Two Parmotrema Lichens: P. robustum (Degel.) Hale and P. andinum (Mull. Arg.) Hale Using UHPLC-ESI-OT-MS-MS

Abstract

Lichens are symbiotic associations of fungi with microalgae and/or cyanobacteria. Lichens belonging to the Parmeliaceae family comprise 2700 species of lichens, including the Parmotrema genus which is composed of 300 species. The metabolites of this genus include depsides, depsidones, phenolics, polysaccharides, lipids, diphenylethers and dibenzofurans, which are responsible for the biological activities reported including antidiabetic, antihelmintic, anticancer, antioxidant, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antimitotic, antitumoral, antifungal, and antioxidant enzyme inhibitory. Due to scarce knowledge of metabolomic profiles of Parmotrema species (P. andinum and P. robustum), a full metabolome study based on ultra-high performance liquid chromatography- diode array detector-electrospray ionization-quadrupole-orbitrap-mass-spectrometry (UHPLC-DAD-ESI-Q-orbitrap MS) was performed for a comprehensive characterization of their substances. From the methanolic extracts of these species, a total of 54 metabolites were identified for the first time using this hyphenated technique, including thirty compounds in P. andinum, and thirty-seven in P. robustum. Moreover, two compounds were not identified as known compounds, and could be new structures, according to our data. This report shows that this technique is effective and accurate for rapid chemical identification of lichen substances and the compounds identified could serve as chemotaxonomic markers to differentiate these ruffle lichens.

Advances and Prospects of Phenolic Acids Production, Biorefinery and Analysis

“…Lichens are symbiotic associations of algae and fungi or cyanobacteria living in amongst the filaments of various fungi such as Trichoderma spp., Usnea , and Cladonia uncialis . The lichenising fungi have polyketide synthase gene clusters, which enable them to produce orsellinic acid and its derivatives [ 163 , 164 , 165 ]. However, they can also produce unique phenolic acids.…”

Are Ionic Liquids Better Extracting Agents Than Toxic Volatile Organic Solvents? A Combination of Ionic Liquids, Microwave and LC/MS/MS, Applied to the Lichen Stereocaulon glareosum

“…Therefore, microwave-assisted extraction was performed in duplicate, thus obtaining a more effective amount than MeOH traditional extraction. In order to check that the ILs (I-IV) are preferable extraction systems for the secondary metabolites, an untargeted metabolomics study based on UHPLC/ESI/MS/MS was performed to identify all compounds (Cornejo et al, 2016;Salgado et al, 2017;Torres-Benitez et al, 2017).…”

“…As shown in Figure 3, the qualitative analysis by the widely used UHPLC/ESI/MS/MS was performed for the characterization of secondary metabolites in complex mixtures based on their MS/MS fragmentation patters (Cornejo et al, 2016;Salgado et al, 2017;Torres-Benitez et al, 2017). On the MeOH extract, seven chemical families were detected and identified under the previously proposed LC/MS/MS analysis conditions, while on the ILs, eight families were detected, and seven identified.…”

“…The Thermo Scientific Dionex Ultimate 3000 UHPLC system hyphenated with a Thermo Q exactive focus machine used was already reported. For the analysis, 2 mg of each extract were first dissolved in 2 mL of ethanol, then filtered (PTFE filter) and finally 10 µL were injected in the instrument, with all specifications set as previously reported (Salgado et al, 2017;Torres-Benitez et al, 2017).…”

“…The standards, and the extracts dissolved in ethanol, were kept at 10 • C during storage in the autosampler. The HESI II and Orbitrap spectrometer parameters were optimized as previously reported (Salgado et al, 2017;Torres-Benitez et al, 2017).…”