Automation of chemical assignment for identifying molecular formula of S-containing metabolites by combining metabolomics and chemoinformatics with 34S labeling

Abstract

Introduction: Sulfur-containing metabolites (S-metabolites) in organisms including plants have unique benefits to humans. So far, few analytical methods have explored such metabolites. Objectives: We aimed to develop an automatic chemically assigning platform by metabolomics and chemoinformatics with 34S labeling to identify the molecular formula of S-metabolites. Methods: Direct infusion analysis using Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance-mass spectrometry provided ultra-high-resolution data including clearly separated isotopic ions—15N, 34S, 18O, and 13C2—in the flower, silique, leaf, stem, and root of non-labeled and 34S-labeled Arabidopsis thaliana. Chemoinformatic analysis assigned several elemental compositions of S-metabolites to the acquired S-containing monoisotopic ions using mass accuracy and peak resolution in the non-labeled metabolome data. Possible elemental compositions were characterized on the basis of diagnostic scores of the exact mass and isotopic ion pattern, and a database search. By comparing elemental compositions assigned to the 34S-labeled data with those assigned to the non-labeled data, the elemental composition of S-metabolites were determined. The determined elemental compositions were surveyed using the in-house database, which stores molecular formulae downloaded from metabolome databases. Results: We identified 35 molecular formulae for known S-metabolites and characterized 72 for unknown. Chemoinformatics required around 1.5 min to analyze a pair of the non-labeled and 34S-labeled data of the organ. Conclusion: In this study, we developed an automation platform for automatically identifying the presence of S-metabolites. We identified the molecular formula of known S-metabolites, which are accessible in free databases, together with that of unknown. This analytical method did not focus on identifying the structure of S-metabolites, but on the automatic identification of their molecular formula.