Impacts of Fungicide Treatment and Conventional Fertilization Management on the Potato Metabolome (Solanum tuberosum L.) Evaluated with UPLC-IMS-QToF

Two field trials were conducted to investigate the influence of fungicide and fertilization management on the potato tubers’ metabolome (Solanum tuberosum L.). Thereby, fungicides and conventional fertilizers were varied in terms of quantities, number and date of applications, physical state, and product composition. Following a water-methanol-based extraction, samples were analyzed using an UPLC-IMS-QToF and multivariate data analysis. Fungicide application led to significant changes in the tubers’ metabolome. Flavonoids were increasingly expressed as a natural response to impending fungal or viral infections in an untreated group, while the phytoalexin rishitinol was highly abundant in groups with fungicide application. In contrast to fungicides, the application of conventional fertilizers did not cause significant alterations in the tubers’ compound composition. Consequently, the impact of fungicide application could be rated as more important than the fertilization-derived influence, which might be because of a gentler adaption to fertilization than to the acute stress of fungicide applications.