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Young Scientist Research Award - (Metabolic profiling in cereals: Analysis of secondary metabolites in wheat using LC-QTOF/MS)
S. SIMSEK (1). (1) North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND, U.S.A.

Metabolomics is the study of the specific profile of small molecules, metabolites, produced by an organism. Metabolites can act as signals, growth regulators and plant defense agents. With respect to cereals, they can play an important role on many aspects of plant physiology, grain quality and processing, and nutritional aspects of grains as they constitute colors, flavors, aromas and antioxidants. In this project, we investigated the production of secondary metabolites as response to a plant disease called Fusarium Head Blight (FHB), which has been a persistent problem in small grains with worldwide outbreaks. For metabolic profiling of wheat, we used ultra-performance liquid chromatography – quadrapol time of flight (UPLC-QTOF) mass spectrometry. UPLC-QTOF is capable of detecting thousands of metabolites from a single plant extract. In one of our studies, the UPLC-QTOF has allowed for the detection of the co-occurrence of two important mycotoxins, deoxynivalenol (DON) and DON-3-glucoseide (D-3-G) produced during the FHB infection of wheat, barley and other cereal grains. In another research project, we focused on the identification and differentiation of metabolites produced by wheat in response to FHB. Wheat lines were inoculated with an isolate of <i>Fusarium graminearum.</i> The analysis of these samples was conducted with the UPLC-QTOF to sort and identify the compounds in wheat as a response to the disease. Preliminary experiments resulted in the differentiation of clusters of compounds in response to different treatments. Further analysis of the data will cover the metabolite interactions of the infection process, resulting in information that has not been reported before. Additional benefits of metabolic profiling of cereal grains could be the use of unique metabolites as biomarkers for FHB screening and the determination of other cereal quality traits.

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