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A new boronic acid reagent for the simultaneous determination of C27-, C28-, and C29-brassinosteroids in plant tissues by chemical labeling-assisted liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry

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Abstract

Brassinosteroids (BRs) are endogenous plant growth-promoting hormones affecting growth and development during the entire life cycle of plants. Naturally occurring BRs can be classified into C27-, C28-, or C29-BRs based on the nature of the alkyl groups occupying the C-24 position in the side chain of the 5a-cholestane carbon skeleton. However, while C27-BRs exhibit similar bioactivities to C28- and C29-BRs, the biosynthetic pathways of C27-BRs in plants have not yet been clearly characterized. In addition to a lack of biochemical and enzymatic evidence regarding the biosynthetic pathways of C27-BRs, even most of the intermediate compounds on their pathways have not been explored and identified due to the lower endogenous levels of C27-BRs. Therefore, the development of highly sensitive analytical methods is essential for studying the biosynthetic pathways and physiological functions of C27-BRs. Accordingly, this study establishes qualitative and quantitative methods for identifying and detecting C27-, C28-, and C29-BRs using a newly synthesized boronic acid reagent denoted as 2-methyl-4-phenylaminomethylphenylboronic acid (2-methyl-4-PAMBA) in conjunction with liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). Labeling with 2-methyl-4-PAMBA provides derivatives with excellent stability, and the detection sensitivities of BRs, particularly for C27-BRs, are dramatically improved. The limits of detection (with a signal-to-noise ratio of 3) for six BRs, including 2 C27-BRs (28-norCS and 28-norBL), 3 C28-BRs (CS, BL, and TY), and a single C29-BR (28-homoBL), are found to be 0.10–1.68 pg/mL after labeling with 2-methyl-4-PAMBA. Finally, the proposed analytical method is successfully applied for the detection of endogenous BRs in small mass samples of Oryza sativa seedlings, Rape flowers, Arabidopsis shoots, and Arabidopsis flowers. In addition, a method for profiling potential BRs in plants is also developed using LC-MS in multiple reaction monitoring scan mode assisted by 2-methyl-4-PAMBA and 2-methyl-4-PAMBA-d5 labeling. The developed method is able to identify 10 potential BRs in a Rape flower extract. The proposed quantitative and qualitative methods established by 2-methyl-4-PAMBA labeling are helpful for facilitating an understanding of the physiological functions and biosynthetic pathways of BRs, particularly for C27-BRs.

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Funding

The work is supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant 2017YFC0906800), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants 21475098, 21635006, and 31670373) and the Postdoctoral Science Foundation of China (Grant 2017M612493).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Biology and Medicine (Ministry of Education), Department of Chemistry, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, Hubei, China

    Lei Yu, Wen-Jing Cai, Tiantian Ye & Yu-Qi Feng

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  1. Lei Yu
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  2. Wen-Jing Cai
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  3. Tiantian Ye
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  4. Yu-Qi Feng
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Correspondence to Yu-Qi Feng.

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Yu, L., Cai, WJ., Ye, T. et al. A new boronic acid reagent for the simultaneous determination of C27-, C28-, and C29-brassinosteroids in plant tissues by chemical labeling-assisted liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. Anal Bioanal Chem 411, 1623–1632 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-019-01612-9

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