Spines are key plant modifications developed to deal against herbivores; however, its physical structure and chemical composition have been little explored in plant species. Here, we took advantage of high-throughput chromatography to characterize chemical composition of Agave fourcroydes Lem. spines, a species traditionally used for fiber extraction. Analyses of structural carbohydrate showed that spines have lower cellulose content than leaf fibers (52 and 72%, respectively) but contain more than 2-fold the hemicellulose and 1.5-fold pectin. Xylose and galacturonic acid were enriched in spines compared to fibers. The total lignin content in spines was 1.5-fold higher than those found in fibers, with elevated levels of syringyl (S) and guaiacyl (G) subunits but similar S/G ratios within tissues. Metabolomic profiling based on accurate mass spectrometry revealed the presence of phenolic compounds including quercetin, kaempferol, (+)-catechin, and (−)-epicatechin in A. fourcroydes spines, which were also detected in situ in spines tissues and could be implicated in the color of these plants’ structures. Abundance of (+)-catechins could also explain proanthocyanidins found in spines. Agave spines may become a plant model to obtain more insights about cellulose and lignin interactions and condensed tannin deposition, which is valuable knowledge for the bioenergy industry and development of naturally dyed fibers, respectively.

中文翻译：

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揭开龙舌兰棘的化学成分：龙舌兰fourcroydes Lem的消息。

棘是开发用来抵抗草食动物的关键植物修饰。然而，它的物理结构和化学组成在植物物种中很少被探索。在这里，我们利用高通量色谱法来表征龙舌兰四croydes的化学成分林 刺，传统上用于纤维提取的物种。对结构性碳水化合物的分析表明，刺的纤维素含量比叶纤维低（分别为52％和72％），但半纤维素和果胶的含量却超过2倍。与纤维相比，木糖和半乳糖醛酸富含刺。刺中木质素的总含量比纤维中的总含量高1.5倍，其中丁香基（S）和愈创木基（G）亚基水平升高，但组织中的S / G比相似。基于精确质谱分析代谢揭示酚类化合物包括槲皮素，山奈酚的存在下，（+） -儿茶素和（ - ） -表儿茶素在A. fourcroydes刺，也可以在刺组织中原位检测到，可能与这些植物结构的颜色有关。（+）-儿茶素的丰富也可能解释了在刺中发现的原花色素。龙舌兰刺可能成为一种植物模型，以获取有关纤维素和木质素相互作用以及缩合单宁沉积的更多见解，这对于生物能源行业和天然染色纤维的开发分别是宝贵的知识。