(P03-080-23) What’s in a Mushroom? Dietary Mushroom Metabolomics Profiling Using Untargeted Metabolomics and Targeted Amino Acid Analysis

Objectives: Mushrooms contain multiple essential nutrients and health-promoting bioactive compounds, including the amino acid L-ergothioneine, a potential antioxidant, which is not synthesized by higher plants or animals. While the chemical composition of some single mushroom varieties have been studied, this research aimed to compare the metabolomes of seven mushroom varieties.

Methods: Using untargeted liquid chromatography mass spectrometry-based metabolomics, we assessed the metabolomic profiles of fresh raw white button, oyster, portabella, crimini, shiitake, maitake, and lion’s mane mushrooms, each sourced from two farms (3 replicates/farm). We also quantified amino acid concentrations, including L-ergothioneine and glutathione, using targeted mass spectrometry.

Results: Among the seven mushroom varieties, we detected over 10,000 compounds. Principal Component Analysis indicates mushrooms of the same species, Agaricus Bisporus (white button, portabella, crimini), group similarly. Conversely, lion's mane, maitake, oyster, and shiitake mushrooms formed individual, distinct clusters. A total of 1,344 (520 annotated) compounds were detected in all seven mushroom varieties. In contrast, each variety had tens-to-hundreds of unique-to-mushroom-variety compounds. These ranged from 29 for crimini to 854 for lion’s mane. Amino acid analysis revealed all three Agaricus bisporus varieties had similar amino acid profiles (including detection of all nine essential amino acids), while other varieties had less methionine and tryptophan. Glutathione concentrations ranged from 202 ± 289 (mean ± SD) in lion’s mane to 5283 ± 1180 nM/g in maitake. Lion’s mane and oyster mushrooms had the most L-ergothioneine among the seven mushroom varieties.

Conclusions: Mushrooms contain thousands of compounds, including several with known bioactive properties, and some possibly unique to these edible fungi. The detection of hundreds of unique-to-mushroom-variety compounds and differences in amino acid profiles emphasize the chemical differences between mushroom varieties.

Funding Sources: Mushroom Council