Profiling Of Terpene Metabolism in 13CO2-Labelled Thymus Transcaucasicus

Metabolism is characterized by the functional pathways and fluxes connecting substrates, intermediates and products of a given organism. Pathways in carbon metabolism can be identified by incorporating 13C-labelled tracers. In the present model study, we have evaluated potential benefits from a single 13CO2 pulse-chase experiment with the Caucasian endemic plant Thymus transcaucasicus for the analysis of terpene composition and biosynthesis. The study design was conducive of low 13C-enrichments (< 1%) in terpenes that were detected at enhanced NMRsensitivities without hampering GC-MS-based methods for terpene profiling. From the specific 13C-labelling patterns, pathways of terpene biosynthesis could be gleaned as exemplified for the mono-terpenethymol which is made via the non-mevalonate route under the physiological in vivo conditions of the 13CO2 experiment.