Simplified Plant Sample Preparation for use in Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) Based Metabolomic Profiling and Targeted Analyte Quantitation

Abstract

A simple, fast, reproducible and less laborious sample preparation protocol was developed for the analysis of Arabidopsis thaliana using Gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS). In particular, a semi-automated machine tool is used to replace the traditional mortar-pestle method in tissue grinding. One-pot chemical extraction-derivatization is used to provide simplified sample preparation over the conventional multi-step liquid-liquid extraction protocol. Wild-type and transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings were used as the model system to evaluate performance of this newly developed method for use in metabolic profiling and also targeted quantitative analysis of salicylic acid for the study of systemic acquired resistance.