Nutrient supplementation-induced metabolic profile changes and early appearance of free N-glycans in nutrient deficient tomato plants revealed by mass spectrometry

Inorganic fertilizers are routinely used in large scale crop production for the supplementation of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium in nutrient poor soil. To explore metabolic changes in tomato plants grown on humic sand under different nutritional conditions, matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry was utilized for the analysis of xylem sap. Variations in the abundances of metabolites and oligosaccharides, including free N-glycans (FNGs), were determined. Statistical analysis of the sample-related peaks revealed significant differences in the abundance ratios of multiple metabolites, including oligosaccharides, between the control plants, grown with no fertilizers, and plants raised under "ideal" and "nitrogen deficient" nutritional conditions, i.e., under the three treatment types. Among the 36 spectral features tentatively identified as oligosaccharides, the potential molecular structures for 18 species were predicted based on their accurate masses and isotope distribution patterns. To find the spectral features that account for most of the differences between the spectra corresponding to the three different treatments, multivariate statistical analysis was carried out by orthogonal partial least squares-discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA). They included both FNGs and non-FNG compounds that can be considered as early indicators of nutrient deficiency. Our results reveal that the potential nutrient deficiency indicators can be expanded to other metabolites beyond FNGs. The m/z values for 20 spectral features with the highest variable influence on projection (VIP) scores were ranked in the order of their influence on the statistical model.