NMR-based metabolomics study of the biochemical relationship between sugarcane callus tissues and their respective nutrient culture media.

The culture of sugarcane leaf explant onto culture induction medium triggers the stimulation of cell metabolism into both embryogenic and non-embryogenic callus tissues. Previous analyses demonstrated that embryogenic and non-embryogenic callus tissues have distinct metabolic profiles. This study is the follow-up to understand the biochemical relationship between the nutrient media and callus tissues using one-dimensional (1D (1)H) and two-dimensional (2D (1)H-(13)C) NMR spectroscopy followed by principal component analysis (PCA). 1D (1)H spectral comparisons of fresh unspent media (FM), embryogenic callus media (ECM), non-embryogenic callus media (NECM), embryogenic callus (EC), and non-embryogenic callus (NEC), showed different metabolic relationships between callus tissues and media. Based on metabolite fold change analysis, significantly changing sugar compounds such as glucose, fructose, sucrose, and maltose were maintained in large quantities by EC only. Significantly different amino acid compounds such as valine, leucine, alanine, threonine, asparagine, and glutamine and different organic acid derivatives such as lactate, 2-hydroxyisobutyrate, 4-aminobutyrate, malonate, and choline were present in EC, NEC, and NECM, which indicates that EC maintained these nutrients, while NEC either maintained or secreted the metabolites. These media and callus-specific results suggest that EC and NEC utilize and/or secrete media nutrients differently.