NMR natural abundance estimation of13C-metabolic solutes in normal and habituated sugarbeet cell lines

Abstract

NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) spectroscopy was used to identify metabolic solutes in one normal and two habituated sugarbeet cell lines (Beta vulgaris L.altissima) obtained from the same mother strain. This technique was applied to investigate the intracellular naturally occurring13C isotopes (1.1% of total natural carbon) in living sugarbeet suspension cells and perchloric cell extracts. A combination of1H,13C, double-quantum filter correlation spectroscopy, heteronuclear multiple-bond correlation, and heteronuclear multiple-quantum coherence spectra from perchloric cell extracts enabled us to identify the main compounds in the different extract solutions. This was verified by spiking the solutions with small amounts of reference compounds to exclude the influence exerted by pH on the chemical shifts of the different compounds in the1H and13C spectra. The comparison of the three sugarbeet cell lines' NMR spectra showed the presence of sucrose, glucose, and fructose in the three strains. On the other hand, it revealed a strong discrepancy between metabolic solutes. Spectra from the habituated lines showed the presence of glutamine. Some amino acids such as alanine or valine, and unidentified signals corresponding to aromatic rings were only characterized in the habituated nonorganogenic cells. On the basis of these13C NMR data we assumed that the discrepancy between the different sugarbeet cell lines could be due to an increase in the metabolic activity of the habituated cell lines in relation to their autonomous growth.