Leaf Chemical Profiling of Two Fabiana Species and Their F1 Hybrids

The genus Fabiana belongs to the family Solanaceae and is native to the dry regions of Patagonia and the central and southern Andes mountains. Some of the 15 known Fabiana species have been used in traditional medicine as a diuretic, a digestive, and for kidney diseases. Diverse chemical classes have been identified in F. imbricata, but to our knowledge this is the first report of chemical profiling in F. viscosa, which is endemic to Chile. In this project, we generated an F1 generation from a cross between F. imbricata and F. viscosa. Leaves from the parents and 11 F1 plants were freeze dried, ground to a fine powder, and extracted with 100 μl/mg of monophasic extraction solvent (30:30:20:20 acetonitrile, methanol, isopropanol and water). The extracts were subjected to LC-MS metabolomics analysis on a Synapt G2-Si quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometer coupled to an I-class UPLC system. Separations were carried out on a CSH phenyl-hexyl column (2.1 x 100 mm, 1.7 µM). A total of 271 compounds were identified belonging to diverse chemical classes. Carboximidic acids, naphthalenes, and oxylipins were significantly abundant in F. viscosa, while flavonoids and prenol lipids were significantly abundant in F. imbricata. F1 plant profiles represented a mosaic of the parental profiles. Interestingly, some flavonoids showed significantly higher abundance in F1 plants compared to either parent. The results from this project will be useful in understanding the genetics underlying the production of the different compounds by these two species in the future