New Untargeted Metabolic Profiling Combining Mass Spectrometry and Isotopic Labeling: Application on Aspergillus fumigatus Grown on Wheat

Characterization of fungal secondary metabolomes has become a challenge due to the industrial applications of many of these molecules, and also due to the emergence of fungal threats to public health and natural ecosystems. Given that, the aim of the present study was to develop an untargeted method to analyze fungal secondary metabolomes by combining high-accuracy mass spectrometry and double isotopic labeling of fungal metabolomes. The strain NRRL 35693 of Aspergillus fumigatus , an important fungal pathogen, was grown on three wheat grain substrates: (1) naturally enriched grains (99% C-12), (2) grains enriched 96.8% with C-13, (3) grains enriched with 53.4% with C-13 and 96.8% with N-15. Twenty-one secondary metabolites were unambiguously identified by high-performance liquid chromatography-high-resolution mass spectrometry (HPLC-HRMS) analysis. AntiBase 2012 was used to confirm the identity of these metabolites. Additionally, on the basis of tandem mass spectrometry (MSn) experiments, it was possible to identify for the first time the formula and the structure of fumigaclavine D, a new member of the fumigaclavines family. Post biosynthesis degradation of tryptoquivaline F by methanol was also identified during HPLC-HRMS analysis by the detection of a carbon atom of nonfungal origin. The interest of this method lies not only on the unambiguous determination of the exact chemical formulas of fungal secondary metabolites but also on the easy discrimination of nonfungal products. Validation of the method was thus successfully achieved in this study, and it can now be applied to other fungal metabolomes, offering great possibilities for the discovery of new drugs or toxins