Profiling of trichorzianines in culture samples of Trichoderma atroviride by liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry

Peptaibols are bioactive linear peptides of 5-20 amino acid residues and contain specific non-proteinogenic amino acids such as alpha-aminoisobutyric acid (Aib). They are antibiotic secondary metabolites of moulds belonging predominantly to the genus Trichoderma, some species of which are successfully used as biocontrol organisms to fight against plant diseases. In the present study we developed a profiling method for the relative quantification of 16 trichorzianine peptaibols in culture samples of T. atroviride and the comparison of their expression patterns by liquid chromatography/electrospray ionisation tandem mass spectrometry (LC/ESI-MS/MS). The method is based on selected reaction monitoring (SRM) in a triple-quadrupole tandem mass spectrometer using three SRM transitions per compound. The trichorzianines were enriched by solid-phase extraction (SPE) on C(18) cartridges. SPE recoveries were evaluated for diluted trichorzianine standard solutions and ranged from 72-97%. Suppression of the ionisation of the peptaibols in the ESI source ranged from 67-128% for most of the trichorzianines in culture filtrates of two different strains of T. atroviride and in spiked culture medium. In the case of trichorzianines TA Vb, TA VIa and TA VIb the presence of matrix components in the fungal culture samples caused a reduction of the SRM signal, with intensities between 34% and 56% relative to pure standard solutions. Finally, the profiling method was successfully applied to culture samples of T. atroviride P1 wild-type and two deletion mutants showing different trichorzianine expression patterns characteristic for the investigated fungal strains. This is the first LC-SRM profiling method for peptaibols for the investigation of peptaibol expression patterns in fungal culture samples. Copyright (c) 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.