HPTLC-based metabolomics for the investigation of metabolic changes during plant development: The case study of Artemisia annua

Abstract

The application of high performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC)-based non-targeted metabolomics as a holistic approach to compare fingerprints of metabolite changes during Artemisia annua development is described. Images of HPTLC chromatograms obtained after derivatization with anisaldehyde-sulphuric acid reagent were used as a dataset for multivariate analysis. Principal component analysis and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis confirmed the differentiation of samples belonging to vegetative phase, flowering stage, and seed formation stage of the plant development. The obtained results showed that the HPTLC-based metabolomics approach can be a very reliable technique for the investigation of metabolic changes during plant development, complementary to gas chromatography–mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance-based metabolomics.

Keywords

• plant metabolomics
• pca
• opls-da