Spatially Resolved Plant Metabolomics

Abstract

Primary and secondary metabolism of plants are segregated amidst many differentiated and specialized plant organs, tissues, cells and organelles. The specialized physiology of anatomically distinct components contribute to highly sophisticated, autotrophic systems that are foundational to global energy, ecology, biology and nutrition. An established literature base exists for focused studies of metabolism in specific organs, tissue, cells, and this literature is briefly reviewed here. However, modern metabolic studies are moving towards more global metabolite analyses (i.e. metabolomics and systems biology) with high anatomical, spatial and temporal resolution to better understand the massive complexity of plant systems. Several current examples of such spatially resolved metabolomics experiments are provided here, and the current prospects of metabolite imaging reviewed. Although current metabolomics approaches have been quite informative, they are still constrained by multiple factors. The major challenges that still face plant metabolomics are metabolite annotation, depth‐of‐coverage or comprehensiveness, instrumental sensitivity and dynamic range. These plant metabolomics challenges are discussed in general and relative to temporally and spatially resolved metabolomics.

Metabolomics in Plant-Microbe Interactions: Unveiling Chemical Dialogues and Advancing Agriculture

“…These techniques, coupled with bioinformatics tools for data processing and analysis, enable the rapid and sensitive detection and identification of a wide range of metabolites present in plant and microbial samples 10,22 . The sensitivity and high-throughput nature of these techniques allow for the rapid and comprehensive profiling of metabolites, enabling researchers to capture the dynamic changes in metabolic profiles that occur during plant-microbe interactions 11,12 .…”

“…High-throughput metabolomics techniques, such as mass spectrometry (MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, allow for the rapid and comprehensive profiling of metabolites, enabling researchers to capture the dynamic changes in metabolic profiles that occur during plant-microbe interactions 10,11 . These advanced analytical techniques, coupled with bioinformatics tools for data processing and analysis, have revolutionized our understanding of plant-microbe interactions by facilitating the identification of novel metabolites and the elucidation of their biological functions 12,13 .…”

Recent advances in proteomics and metabolomics in plants

“…Recently, spatially resolved metabolomics, which integrates MSI and metabolomics methods, has been proposed for accurate determination of types, contents, and spatial differentiation of primary and secondary metabolites within plant tissues (Sumner et al 2011;Etalo et al 2015;Dong et al 2016a). This integrated method has been applied in various emerging applications, such as precise localization of metabolites, biosynthesis and translocation pathways of functional metabolites, and functional gene verification.…”

A multi-omics approach to solving problems in plant disease ecology

“…Metabolomics, the comprehensive profiling of all small molecules within an organism, is at the phenotypic end of the -omics spectrum and captures the results of the information cascade beginning with the genome and progressing through the transcriptome and proteome [ 47 ] ( Fig 1 ). While metabolomics is firmly rooted in the chemical analysis of individual constituent compounds, the field has rapidly progressed in the past two decades to the ability to rapidly and exhaustively assess metabolites in multiple spatial and temporal dimensions [ 48 – 50 ]. While there are still limitations to attaining a complete understanding of the vast diversity of metabolites within a given organism or plant, targeted and untargeted approaches provide deep insights that, when coupled with complementary omics approaches, can yield an abundance of insights [ 51 – 53 ].…”