Identification and structural elucidation of acylsugars in tomato leaves using liquid chromatography-ion mobility-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-IM-MS/MS)

Authors: KARTOWIKROMO, KIMBERLY - Auburn University; PIZZO, JESSICA - Auburn University; RUTZ, THIAGO - Auburn University; LOVE, ZACHARY - Auburn University; Simmons, Alvin; OJEDA, ANN - Auburn University; DA SILVA, ANDRE - Auburn University; RODRIGUES, CAMILA - Auburn University; HAMID, AHMED - Auburn University

Submitted to: Journal of American Society for Mass Spectrometry
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/4/2024
Publication Date: 12/16/2024
Citation: Kartowikromo, K.Y., Pizzo, J.S., Rutz, T., Love, Z.E., Simmons, A.M., Ojeda, A.S., Da Silva, A.L., Rodrigues, C., Hamid, A.M. 2024. Identification and structural elucidation of acylsugars in tomato leaves using liquid chromatography-ion mobility-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-IM-MS/MS). Journal of American Society for Mass Spectrometry. https://doi.org/10.1021/jasms.4c00376.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/jasms.4c00376

Interpretive Summary: Leaves on tomato and similar types of plants contain hairs that can produce many types of chemicals including certain sugars called acylsugars. Acylsugars can help plants protect themselves from many types of insect pests. Research in this study was able to identify and compare structural differences among acylsugars in a commercial tomato cultivar and five wild types of tomato. Plants from five species (taxonomic types) of tomato were represented in this study. These findings will pave the way for scientists to research how different acylsugars might influence the plant to have resistance against insect pests.

Technical Abstract: Leaves of tomato plants contain various glandular trichomes that produce a wide range of metabolic products including acylsugars, which may serve as a defense mechanism against various insect pests. Acylsugars exhibit significant structural diversity, differing in their sugar cores, acylated positions, and type of acyl chains. This work demonstrated a complementary approach using multidimensional separation techniques, specifically liquid chromatography-ion mobility-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-IM-MS/MS), for structural characterization and the discrimination of different tomato cultivar and accessions was demonstrated using tomato leaf extracts; six genotypes from five species of Solanum were represented. As a result, isomers and conformers of acylsugars were revealed. Furthermore, the experimental collision cross section (CCSexp) values had reasonably good agreement with the predicted values (CCSpred), with an overall estimated error of less than 2%. These findings pave the way for research into how the different structural isomers of acylsugars might influence the self-defense mechanism in plants. Moreover, the research demonstrated that the investigated cultivar and accessions of tomatoes can be distinguished from each other based on their metabolite profile, e.g., acylsugars, with statistical models, such as principal component analysis (PCA) yielding a prediction rate of 91.83%.