Metabolomic Profiling of Corn and Rice Extracts Using a Benchtop GC-TOFMS

Introduction

Corn and rice are some of the most important crops worldwide for food, feed, and energy.^1,2 Metabolomic profiling is one of the most effective approaches for studying the general characteristics of rice and corn, their resistance to insects, and their tolerance to stressful environmental conditions.³ Metabolomics can be used to study crop diversity and disease resistance. These studies often lead to an improvement in quality, yield, and nutritional value.^4,5 More specifically, food quality traits such as fragrance, taste, appearance, shelf-life, and nutritional content can be assessed by determining their biochemical content.⁶ In this study, we took advantage of a new benchtop GC-TOFMS for metabolomics profiling of corn and rice extracts. Instrument parameters were optimized for speed and detection of a wide array of metabolites after samples were derivatized via silylation. Powerful software tools were used to acquire, peak find, and quickly annotate the rich, high quality spectral data produced by LECO Corporation's new Pegasus^®BT mass spectrometer.