UC Irvine

Mass spectrometry (MS) is an ever-advancing technique, capable of detecting small moleculesat incredibly low concentrations, while gathering the information necessary to identify unknown molecules. I have used a combination of LC-MS/MS, MALDI-TOF-MS, GC-EI-MS, and tandem-quadrupole-MS in my graduate career to quantity and identify unknown small molecules in plant tissue, namely that of Drosera capensis, or the Cape Sundew. In this body of work, I present a first chapter dedicated towards summarizing basic LC-MS/MS data collection guidance, as well as a detailed guide for the processing of untargeted metabolomics data using multiple open-access software packages available freely to academics. The second chapter is a first-author publication which focuses on the use of MALDI-TOF-MS to identify spatial patterns of different small molecules in plant tissue. The third chapter is another first-author publication where we used a combination of LC-MS/MS, genomics, and transcriptomics to monitor the response of Drosera capensis to the hormone jasmonic acid, showing that the plant obtains amino acids through prey protein degradation, while upregulating a number of different flavonoid and lipid structures.