Abstract
An analysis of the potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) tuber life cycle has been completed using a range of mass-spectrometry (MS) based approaches. Six stages have
been examined which included developing and mature
tubers, sprouting mature tubers and mature tubers stored at 5 or 10C. The impact of excising developing tubers from
the mother plant (source-sink manipulation) was also
determined. Data was subjected to Principal Components
Analysis, Analysis of Variance and Hierarchical Cluster
Analysis to assess the potential for separating the life cycle
stages, to define the major profiles for metabolite changes
during the life cycle stages examined, and to inform on
which metabolites underpinned these profiles. We have
shown that it is possible to separate all of the stages using
combined analytical approaches and that five major profiles
can be used to describe the changes in metabolite levels.
Data also indicate that, within a relatively short timeframe,
manipulation of source-sink relations has a significant
impact on metabolite pools beyond what is currently
known for sugar-starch metabolism. We have also demonstrated that the metabolomics data can be mined to
provide answers to specific questions -- in this case to
identify temporal changes in metabolites related to acrylamide-forming potential.
Year
2010
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Category
Refereed journal