Project description:Untargeted multi-omics analysis of plasma is an emerging tool for the identification of novel biomarkers for evaluating disease prognosis and for a better understanding of molecular mechanisms underlying human disease. The successful application of metabolomic and pro-teomic approaches relies on reproducibly quantifying a wide range of metabolites and proteins. Herein, we report the results of untargeted metabolomic and proteomic analyses from blood plasma samples following analyte extraction by two frequently used solvent systems: chloro-form/methanol and methanol-only. Whole blood samples were collected from participants (n=6) at University Hospital Sharjah (UHS) hospital, then plasma was separated and extracted by two methods i. methanol precipitation and, ii. 4:3 methanol:chloroform extraction. The coverage and reproducibility of the two methods were assessed by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC-ESI-QTOF-MS). The study revealed that metabolite extraction by methanol-only showed greater reproducibility for both metabolomic and proteomic quantifications than did methanol/chloroform, while yielding similar peptide coverage. However, coverage of extracted metabolites was higher with the methanol/chloroform precipitation.
Project description:We examined changes in steady-state transcript level in leaves of Arabidopsis plants subjected to salinity, heat stress and their combination by a transcriptome analysis of leaves.
Project description:During senescence of detached rice leaves, tryptophan (Trp) and Trp-derived secondary metabolites such as serotonin and 4-coumaroylserotonin accumulated in concert with methanol (MeOH) production. This senescence-induced MeOH induction was closely associated with levels of pectin methylesterase (PME)1 mRNA and PME enzyme activity. Exogenous challenge of detached rice leaves with 1% MeOH accelerated Trp and serotonin biosynthesis with induction of the corresponding genes. No other solvents including ethanol resulted in a Trp-inducing effect. This MeOH-induced Trp synthesis was positively regulated by abscisic acid but negatively regulated by cytokinin, suggesting hormonal involvement on the action of MeOH. Endogenous overproduction or suppression of MeOH either by PME1 overexpression or RNAi gene silencing revealed that PME1 overexpressing lines produced twofold higher Trp levels with elevated Trp biosynthetic gene expression, whereas RNAi lines showed twofold reduction in Trp level in healthy control rice leaves, suggesting that MeOH acts as an endogenous elicitor to enhance Trp biosynthesis. Among many transcription factors induced following MeOH treatment, the WRKY family showed significant induction patterns of which WRKY14 appeared to play a key regulatory role in MeOH-induced Trp and Trp-derived secondary metabolite biosynthesis. Total RNAs were extracted from the detached rice leaves with 1% MeOH or distilled water for 1 d, and gene expression was compared between the two groups with two replicates. DW, detached leaves in distilled water for 1 day; MeOH (2-replications), methanol treated detached leaves at the same time point as control. 2 sets of separately normalized data; DW-MeOH(1) and MeOH(2).