Multi-Spectroscopic Analysis of Seed Quality and (13)C-Stable-Iotopologue Monitoring in Initial Growth Metabolism of Jatropha curcas L.

In the present study, we applied nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), as well as near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy, to Jatropha curcas to fulfill two objectives: (1) to qualitatively examine the seeds stored at different conditions, and (2) to monitor the metabolism of J. curcas during its initial growth stage under stable-isotope-labeling condition (until 15 days after seeding). NIR spectra could non-invasively distinguish differences in storage conditions. NMR metabolic analysis of water-soluble metabolites identified sucrose and raffinose family oligosaccharides as positive markers and gluconic acid as a negative marker of seed germination. Isotopic labeling patteren of metabolites in germinated seedlings cultured in agar-plate containg (13)C-glucose and (15)N-nitrate was analyzed by zero-quantum-filtered-total correlation spectroscopy (ZQF-TOCSY) and (13)C-detected (1)H-(13)C heteronuclear correlation spectroscopy (HETCOR). (13)C-detected HETOCR with (13)C-optimized cryogenic probe provided high-resolution (13)C-NMR spectra of each metabolite in molecular crowd. The (13)C-(13)C/(12)C bondmer estimated from (1)H-(13)C HETCOR spectra indicated that glutamine and arginine were the major organic compounds for nitrogen and carbon transfer from roots to leaves.