Global metabolite profiling based on GC–MS and LC–MS/MS analyses in ABF3-overexpressing soybean with enhanced drought tolerance

Abstract

Abscisic acid (ABA) is a phytohormone that plays an important role in the adaptive responses to abiotic stresses. We examined the metabolic changes in transgenic soybean that over-expressed Arabidopsis ABA responsive element-binding factor 3 (ABF3), which participates in drought tolerance. Transgenic and non-transgenic plants were exposed to a water deficit, and their metabolic differences were verified by untargeted GC‒MS and LC‒MS/MS analyses. A total of 64 and 476 primary and secondary metabolites from leaf extracts were identified based on GC‒MS and LC‒MS/MS platforms, respectively. Principal component analysis derived from both GC‒MS and LC‒MS/MS data showed a clearly greater separation in the metabolite profiles among three different degrees of drought stress. However, no discrimination of metabolites between transgenic and non-transgenic plants was apparent. Furthermore, except for some free amino acids, quantitative differences in relative levels of those metabolites were less than 50% between genotypes. These results suggest that, during periods of drought, overexpression of ABF3 in transgenic soybean might result in a negligible variance in primary and secondary metabolism when compared with its non-transgenic counterpart.