Mass Spectrometry Imaging of Coniine and Other Hemlock Alkaloids after On-Tissue Derivatization Reveals Distinct Alkaloid Distributions in the Plant

Journal of Natural Products
2024.0

Abstract

Specialized metabolites play important roles in plants and can, for example, protect plants from predators or pathogens. Alkaloids, due to their pronounced biological activity on higher animals, are one of the most intriguing groups of specialized metabolites, and many of them are known as plant defense compounds. Poison hemlock, Conium maculatum, is well-known for its high content of piperidine alkaloids, of which coniine is the most famous. The distribution, localization, and diversity of these compounds in C. maculatum tissues have not yet been studied in detail. The hemlock alkaloids are low molecular weight compounds with relatively high volatility. They are thus difficult to analyze on-tissue by MALDI mass spectrometry imaging due to delocalization, which occurs even when using an atmospheric pressure ion source. In this manuscript, we describe an on-tissue derivatization method that allows the subsequent determination of the spatial distribution of hemlock alkaloids in different plant tissues by mass spectrometry imaging. Coniferyl aldehyde was found to be a suitable reagent for derivatization of the secondary amine alkaloids. The imaging analysis revealed that even chemically closely related hemlock alkaloids are discretely distributed in different plant tissues. Additionally, we detected a yet undescribed hemlock alkaloid in Conium maculatum seeds.

Knowledge Graph

Similar Paper

Mass Spectrometry Imaging of Coniine and Other Hemlock Alkaloids after On-Tissue Derivatization Reveals Distinct Alkaloid Distributions in the Plant
Journal of Natural Products 2024.0
Biosynthesis and metabolism of the hemlock alkaloids
Journal of the American Chemical Society 1972.0
Identification of <scp>Sassafras albidum</scp> alkaloids by high‐performance thin‐layer chromatography tandem mass spectrometry and mapping by desorption electrospray ionization mass spectrometry imaging
Journal of Mass Spectrometry 2021.0
Poison hemlock (Conium maculatum L.)
Food and Chemical Toxicology 2004.0
Tissue‐specific metabolite profiling of benzylisoquinoline alkaloids in the root of <scp>Macleaya cordata</scp> by combining laser microdissection with ultra‐high‐performance liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry
Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry 2017.0
A novel toxic alkaloid from poison hemlock (Conium maculatum L., Apiaceae): Identification, synthesis and antinociceptive activity
Food and Chemical Toxicology 2012.0
De novo transcriptome assembly of Conium maculatum L. to identify candidate genes for coniine biosynthesis
Scientific Reports 2022.0
A multimodal metabolomics approach using imaging mass spectrometry and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry for spatially characterizing monoterpene indole alkaloids secreted from roots
Plant Biotechnology 2021.0
A study ofaconitum alkaloids from aconite roots inAconitum carmichaeli Debx using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry
Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry 1998.0
Biochemistry of hemlock (Conium maculatum L.) alkaloids and their acute and chronic toxicity in livestock. A review
Toxicon 1999.0