MetaboLights MTBLS335 - GNPS Illuminating a plant’s tissue-specific metabolic diversity using computational metabolomics and information theory

This data set is downloaded from MetaboLights (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/metabolights/) accession number MTBLS335 Abstract:While cross-tissue metabolite variations are increasingly regarded as important readouts of tissue-level gene regulatory processes, these have rarely been explored by non-targeted metabolomics. Here we explore tissue-level metabolic specialization in Nicotiana attenuata, an ecological model with rich secondary metabolism by combining tissue-wide non-targeted mass spectral data acquisition, information theory analysis, and MS/MS molecular networks. This analysis was conducted for two different methanolic extracts of 14 tissues and deconvoluted 895 non-redundant MS/MS spectra. Using information theory analysis, anthers were found to harbor the most specialized metabolome and, through MS/MS molecular networks, most unique metabolites of anthers and other tissues were annotated. Finally, tissue-metabolite association maps were used to predict tissue-specific gene functions. Predictions for the function of two UDP-glycosyltransferases in flavonoid metabolism were confirmed by virus-induced gene-silencing. The present workflow allows biologists to amortize the vast amount of data produced by modern MS instrumentation for their quest to understand gene function.

本数据集下载自MetaboLights（http://www.ebi.ac.uk/metabolights/），登录号为MTBLS335。摘要：尽管跨组织代谢物变异愈发被视为组织水平基因调控过程的关键表征指标，但非靶向代谢组学极少对其展开探索。本研究结合全组织非靶向质谱数据采集、信息论分析与MS/MS分子网络技术，对富含次生代谢的生态模型物种渐狭烟草（Nicotiana attenuata）的组织水平代谢特化现象展开探究。本次分析针对14种组织的两种不同甲醇提取物展开，共解析得到895条非冗余MS/MS质谱谱图。通过信息论分析，研究发现花药拥有最为特化的代谢组；借助MS/MS分子网络，研究人员对花药与其他组织的绝大多数特有代谢物完成了注释。最后，本研究利用组织-代谢物关联图谱预测了组织特异性基因功能，并通过病毒诱导基因沉默（virus-induced gene-silencing）验证了两个UDP-糖基转移酶在黄酮类代谢中的功能预测结果。本研究提出的分析流程可帮助生物学家充分利用现代质谱仪器产生的海量数据，推进其解析基因功能的研究工作。