Stephan Seifert1,2, Steffen M Weidner2, Ulrich Panne1,2, Janina Kneipp1,2. 1. Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Department of Chemistry, Brook-Taylor-Straße 2, 12489, Berlin, Germany. 2. BAM Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing, Richard-Willstätter-Straße 11, 12489, Berlin, Germany.
Abstract
RATIONALE: Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS) has been suggested as a promising tool for the investigation of pollen, but the usefulness of this approach for classification and identification of pollen species has to be proven by an application to samples of varying taxonomic relations. METHOD: MALDI-MS in combination with hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) and principal component analysis (PCA) was used to delineate taxonomic relations between plants based on pollen biochemistry. To assess the robustness of the approach, pollen of 74 species of the plant orders Fagales and Coniferales were probed. RESULTS: Discrimination at the levels of plant order and genus were achieved using the whole spectral range. In many cases, different species of the same genus could be distinguished. The sources of the spectral/chemical differences at the genus level can be understood using PCA. Specifically, typical mass regions for exact genus detection were identified. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that the chemical information represented by MALDI-TOFMS data is useful for reconstructing taxonomic relationships and is complementary to other chemical information on pollen from other spectroscopic data.
RATIONALE: Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS) has been suggested as a promising tool for the investigation of pollen, but the usefulness of this approach for classification and identification of pollen species has to be proven by an application to samples of varying taxonomic relations. METHOD: MALDI-MS in combination with hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) and principal component analysis (PCA) was used to delineate taxonomic relations between plants based on pollen biochemistry. To assess the robustness of the approach, pollen of 74 species of the plant orders Fagales and Coniferales were probed. RESULTS: Discrimination at the levels of plant order and genus were achieved using the whole spectral range. In many cases, different species of the same genus could be distinguished. The sources of the spectral/chemical differences at the genus level can be understood using PCA. Specifically, typical mass regions for exact genus detection were identified. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that the chemical information represented by MALDI-TOFMS data is useful for reconstructing taxonomic relationships and is complementary to other chemical information on pollen from other spectroscopic data.
Authors: Sabrina Diehn; Boris Zimmermann; Valeria Tafintseva; Stephan Seifert; Murat Bağcıoğlu; Mikael Ohlson; Steffen Weidner; Siri Fjellheim; Achim Kohler; Janina Kneipp Journal: Front Plant Sci Date: 2020-01-31 Impact factor: 5.753