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Spatial chemo-profiling of hypericin and related phytochemicals in Hypericum species using MALDI-HRMS imaging

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Abstract

Advanced analytical imaging techniques, including matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization high-resolution mass spectrometry (MALDI-HRMS) imaging, can be used to visualize the distribution, localization, and dynamics of target compounds and their precursors with limited sample preparation. Herein we report an application of MALDI-HRMS imaging to map, in high spatial resolution, the accumulation of the medicinally important naphthodianthrone hypericin, its structural analogues and proposed precursors, and other crucial phytochemical constituents in the leaves of two hypericin-containing species, Hypericum perforatum and Hypericum olympicum. We also investigated Hypericum patulum, which does not contain hypericin or its protoforms. We focused on both the secretory (dark glands, translucent glands, secretory canals, laminar glands, and ventral glands) and the surrounding non-secretory tissues to clarify the site of biosynthesis and localization of hypericin, its possible precursors, and patterns of localization of other related compounds concomitant to the presence or absence of hypericin. Hypericin, pseudohypericin, and protohypericin accumulate in the dark glands. However, the precursor emodin not only accumulates in the dark glands but is also present outside the glands in both hypericin-containing species. In hypericin-lacking H. patulum, however, emodin typically accumulates only in the glands, thereby providing evidence that hypericin is possibly biosynthesized outside the dark glands and thereafter stored in them. The distribution and localization of related compounds were also evaluated and are discussed concomitant to the occurrence of hypericin. Our study provides the basis for further detailed investigation of hypericin biosynthesis by gene discovery and expression studies.

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Acknowledgments

This research was funded in part by the grant project SOFOS-knowledge and skill development of staff and students of P. J. Safarik University in Kosice (contract number: 003/2013/1.2/OPV, ITMS code: 26110230088), funded by the European Social Fund through the Operational Program Education. S.K. was the tutor assigned to supervise and train K.N. within the scope of the SOFOS grant project. We thank the German Research Foundation (DFG) for financing the MALDI imaging high-resolution mass spectrometers and the Scientific Grant Agency of Slovak Republic VEGA 1/0090/15. We gratefully acknowledge Dr S. Zühlke (INFU, TU Dortmund) for valuable discussions, technical assistance, and critically reviewing our manuscript.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Environmental Research (INFU), Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Chair of Environmental Chemistry and Analytical Chemistry, TU Dortmund, Otto-Hahn-Str. 6, 44221, Dortmund, Germany

    Souvik Kusari, Selahaddin Sezgin & Michael Spiteller

  2. P. J. Safarik University in Kosice, Faculty of Science, Institute of Biology and Ecology, Manesova 23, 041 54, Kosice, Slovakia

    Katarina Nigutova & Eva Cellarova

Authors
  1. Souvik Kusari
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  2. Selahaddin Sezgin
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  3. Katarina Nigutova
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  4. Eva Cellarova
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  5. Michael Spiteller
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Correspondence to Souvik Kusari or Michael Spiteller.

Additional information

This manuscript is dedicated with best wishes to Professor Dr Christian Hertweck to honor his remarkable recognition as a Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize winner in 2015.

Published in the topical collection Mass Spectrometry Imaging with guest editors Andreas Römpp and Uwe Karst.

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Kusari, S., Sezgin, S., Nigutova, K. et al. Spatial chemo-profiling of hypericin and related phytochemicals in Hypericum species using MALDI-HRMS imaging. Anal Bioanal Chem 407, 4779–4791 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-015-8682-6

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