UPLC-ESI-MS/MS-based Widely Targeted Metabolomics Reveals Differences in Metabolite Composition Among Four Species

The Chinese name "Lingzhi" refers to genus, which are increasingly used in the food and medical industries. species are often used interchangeably since the differences in their composition are not known. To find compositional metabolite differences among species, we conducted a widely targeted metabolomics analysis of four commonly used edible and medicinal species based on ultra performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry. Through pairwise comparisons, we identified 575-764 significant differential metabolites among the species, most of which exhibited large fold differences. We screened and analyzed the composition and functionality of the advantageous metabolites in each species. advantageous metabolites were mostly related to amino acids and derivatives, as well as terpenes, to terpenes, and and to nucleotides and derivatives, alkaloids, and lipids. Network pharmacological analysis showed that SRC, GAPDH, TNF, and AKT1 were the key targets of high-degree advantage metabolites among the four species. Analysis of Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes demonstrated that the advantage metabolites in the four species may regulate and participate in signaling pathways associated with diverse cancers, Alzheimer's disease, and diabetes. Our findings contribute to more targeted development of products in the food and medical industries.