Relationship of Transformation Efficiency and Metabolites Induced in Korean Soybean Cotyledons Treated with Sonication

The interaction between Agrobacterium and soybean has been studied at the transcriptome level but not at the metabolic level. However, it is necessary to investigate the difference in metabolites between susceptible and non-susceptible cultivars for high efficiency transformation. We investigated the difference in metabolites from sonicated soybean cotyledons of Korean cultivars and Bert cultivar. To identify difference in metabolites, sonicated extracts were analysed by Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR/MS). The soybean cultivars were classified by susceptibility using green fluorescent protein expression. We found a difference in metabolites between the high susceptible and low susceptible cultivars. The FT-ICR/MS experimental m/z data of different metabolites were compared with theoretical m/z in KNApSAcK database. The candidate list was made using KNApSAcK and focused on phenolic compounds. These candidate metabolites are speculated to influence factors in the interaction. This list of candidates may be useful to investigate the interaction between Agrobacterium and plants to increase transformation efficiency.