Tracing the metabolism of HT-2 toxin and T-2 toxin in barley by isotope-assisted untargeted screening and quantitative LC-HRMS analysis

An extensive study of the metabolism of the type A trichothecene mycotoxins HT-2 toxin and T-2 toxin in barley using liquid chromatography coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS) is reported. A recently developed untargeted approach based on stable isotopic labelling, LC-Orbitrap-MS analysis with fast polarity switching and data processing by MetExtract software was combined with targeted LC-Q-TOF-MS(/MS) analysis for metabolite structure elucidation and quantification. In total, 9 HT-2 toxin and 13 T-2 toxin metabolites plus tentative isomers were detected, which were successfully annotated by calculation of elemental formulas and further LC-HRMS/MS measurements as well as partly identified with authentic standards. As a result, glucosylated forms of the toxins, malonylglucosides, and acetyl and feruloyl conjugates were elucidated. Additionally, time courses of metabolite formation and mass balances were established. For absolute quantification of those compounds for which standards were available, the method was validated by determining apparent recovery, signal suppression, or enhancement and extraction recovery. Most importantly, T-2 toxin was rapidly metabolised to HT-2 toxin and for both parent toxins HT-2 toxin-3-O-β-glucoside was identified (confirmed by authentic standard) as the main metabolite, which reached its maximum already 1 day after toxin treatment. Graphical Abstract Isotope-assisted untargeted screening of HT-2 toxin and T-2 toxin metabolites in barley.