http://www.ksu.edu/biology K-State Division of Biology

Ruth Welti

 

Ruth Welti

University Distinguished Professor

Ph.D. 1982, Washington University in St. Louis
Cellular Biology

Structure and function of cell membranes; Mass-spectrometry-based lipid analysis.

 

508 Ackert Hall
(785) 532-6241
welti@ksu.edu

Lipidomics Research Center
Lipid Signaling/Lipidomics Group
Functional Genomics Consortium
Molecular Cellular Developmental Biology Web


Description of Research

The focus of my research program since 2000 has been on the development of a quantitative, high-throughput, mass-spectrometry-based lipid profiling technology and the application of this technology to identify alterations in lipid metabolism that occur as results of signaling events and/or stress responses.  Through ongoing collaboration with researchers working in Arabidopsis, an organism that is particularly genetically tractable and relatively easy to grow and manipulate, we have been able to put into practice a very efficient lipid profiling technology.  Funded by NSF, Kansas NSF EPSCoR, Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation, Kansas Biomedical Infrastructure Network, and Kansas State, we have established the Kansas Lipidomics Research Center (I am serving as Director) and its fee-for-service lipid profiling analytical laboratory at Kansas State, we have developed high-throughput, quantitative methods for all the major lipid polar classes in plants, yeast, and animals, and we have examined the role of lipids in physiological responses. The Lipidomics Center can also perform structural analysis and can analyze simple lipids and other metabolites.  See www.ksu.edu/lipid/lipidomics for updates.

In plants, stresses that lead to alterations in lipid metabolism include drought, cold, freezing, wounding, pathogens, and insect pests.   Utilizing plants with genetic alterations, in collaboration with others, we are profiling lipids to determine the function of genes involved in these processes.  Currently we are focused on understanding the function of oxidized membrane lipids during plant stress. These compounds may regulate the function of enzymes or transcription factors.  Our lab’s roles in collaborative projects are to develop new technologies, to perform the lipid profiling data collection and processing, and to aid in data interpretation.  We also dabble in growing plants and experimenting on them. 

Selected Research Publications

Clauss, K., E. von Roepenack-Lahaye, C.Boettcher, M.R. Roth, R. Welti, A. Erban, J. Kopka, D. Scheel, C. Milkowski, and D. Strack. 2011. Overexpression of sinapine esterase BnSCE3 in Brassica napus seeds triggers global changes in seed metabolism. Plant Physiol. 155: 1127-1145.

Deng, Y., S.A. Meyer, X. Guan, B.L. Escalon, J. Ai, M.S. Wilbanks, r. Welti, N. Garcia-Reyero, and E.J. Perkins.  2011. Analysis of common and specific mechanisms of liver function affected by nitrotoluene compounds. PLoS ONE  6, e14662.  

Kilaru, A.*, P. Tamura* (* = equal contribution), G. Puja, G. Isaac, D.  Baxter,  R.S. Duncan, R. Welti, P. Koulen, K.D. Chapman, and B.J. Venables. 2011. Changes in N-acylethanolamine pathway related metabolites in a rat model of cerebral ischemia/reperfusion. J. Glycom. Lipidom.  1: 101. doi:10.4172/2153-0637.1000101.

Lee, J., R. Welti, M. Roth, W.T. Schapaugh, J. Li, and H. Trick. 2011. Enhanced seed viability and lipid compositional changes during natural aging by suppressing phospholipase Dα insoybean seed. Plant Biotechnol. J. In press.

Lee, J., R. Welti, W.T. Schapaugh, and H. Trick. 2011. Phospholipid and triacylglycerol profiles modified by PLD suppression in soybean seed. Plant Biotechnol. J. 9: 359-372.

Li, M., S.C. Bahn, L. Guo, W. Musgrave, H. Berg, R. Welti, and X. Wang. 2011. Alterations of patatin-related phospholipase pPLAIIIβ reveal effects of membrane lipid metabolism on cellulose content and anisotropic cell expansion in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell 23: 1107-1123.

Schrick, K., S. Shiva, J. Arpin, N. Delimont, G. Isaac, P. Tamura, and R. Welti. 2011. Steryl glucoside and acyl steryl glucoside analysis of Arabidopsis seeds by electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometryLipids. In press.

Zhou, Z., S.R. Marepally, D.S. Nune, P. Pallakollu, G. Ragan, M.R. Roth, L. Wang, G.H. Lushington, M. Visvanathan, and R. Welti.  2011. LipidomeDB Data Calculation Environment: Online processing of direct-infusion mass spectral data for lipid profilesLipids 46: 879-884.

Bais, P., S. Moon, K. He, R. Leitao, K. Dreher, T. Walk, Y.  Sucaet, L. Barkan, G. Wohlgemuth, M.R. Roth, E.S. Wurtele, P. Dixon, O. Fiehn, B.M. Lange, V. Shulaev, L. Sumner, R. Welti, B.J. Nikolau, S.Y. Rhee, and J.A. Dickerson. 2010. PlantMetabolomics.org: a web portal for plant metabolomics experiments. Plant. Physiol.  152: 1807-1816.

Doehlert, D.C., R.A. Moreau, R. Welti, M. Roth, and M.S. McMullen. 2010. Polar lipids from oat kernels. Cereal Chemistry 87: 467-474.

Kilaru, A., G. Isaac, P. Tamura, D.  Baxter, S.R. Duncan, B. J. Venables, R.  Welti, P. Koulen, Peter, and K.D. Chapman. 2010. Targeted lipidomics of endocannabinoid pathway metabolites in murine brain and heart. Lipids 45: 863-875.

Li-Beisson, Y., B. Shorrosh, F. Beisson, M. Andersson, V.  Arondel, P.D.  Bates, S. Baud, D.  Bird, A. DeBono, T.P. Durrett, R.B. Franke, I.A. Graham, K. Katayama, A. Kelly, T. Larson, J.E. Markham, M. Miquel, I. Molina, I. Nishida, O.  Rowland, L. Samuels, K.M.  Schmid,  H. Wada, R. Welti, C. Xu, R. Zallot, and J. Ohlrogge.  2010. Acyl lipid metabolism.  The Arabidopsis Book.

Ouyang, Ping, Y. Jiang, M. Doan Hieu, L. Xie, D. Vasquez, R. Welti, X. Su, N. Lu, B. Herndon, S.-S. Yang, R. Jeannotte, and W. Wang. 2010. Weight loss via exercise with controlled dietary intake may affect phospholipid profile for cancer prevention in murine skin tissues. Cancer Prev. Res. (Phila Pa). 3: 466-477.

Pan, X., R. Welti, and X. Wang. 2010. Quantitative analysis of major plant hormones in crude plant extracts by high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. Nat. Protoc. 5: 986-992.

Peters, C., M. Li, R. Narasimhan, M. Roth, R. Welti, and X. Wang. 2010. Nonspecific phospholipase C NPC4 promotes responses to abscisic acid and tolerance to hyperosmotic stress in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell 22: 2642-2659.

Singh, A., T. Prasad, K. Kapoor, A. Mandal, M. Roth, R. Welti, and R. Prasad. 2010. Phospholipidome of Candida: Each species of Candida has distinctive phospholipid molecular species. OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology 14: 665-677.

Sparkes, B., E. Archer, M. Roth, R. Welti, and S.D Fleming.  2010. Ischemia/reperfusion-induced intestinal lipid alterations occur prior to antibody-induced PGE2 production. Biochim. Biophys. Acta (Molecular and Cell Biology of Lipids) 1801: 517-525.

Welti, R. 2010. Plant lipidomics. In The AOCS Lipid Library.

Xiao, S., W. Gao, W-F. Chen, S-W. Chan, S-X. Zheng, J. Ma, M. Wang, R. Welti, and M-L. Chen. 2010. Overexpression of Arabidopsis acyl-CoA binding protein ACBP3 promotes starvation-induced and age-dependent leaf senescence. Plant Cell 22: 1463-1482.

Hong, Y., S.P. Devaiah, S.Bahn, B.N. Thamasandra, M. Li, R. Welti, and X. Wang. 2009. Phospholipase De and phosphatidic acid enhance Arabidopsis growth. Plant J. 58: 376-387.

Jao, Cindy Y., M. Roth, R. Welti, and A. Salic. 2009. Metabolic labeling and direct imaging of choline phospholipids in vivo. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 106: 15332-15337.

Su, K., D.J. Bremer, R. Jeannotte, R. Welti, and C. Yang. 2009. Membrane lipid composition and heat tolerance in cool-season turfgrasses including a hybrid bluegrass Am. Soc. Hort. Sci. 134: 511-520.

Wang, X. (Sam), and R. Welti.  Understanding plant lipidsASBMB Today. July 2009.  p. 22.

Zhang, Y., H. Zhu, M.Li, Q. Zhang, L. Wang, R. Welti, W. Zhang, and X. Wang. 2009. Phospholipase Dα1 and phosphatidic acid regulate NADPH oxidase activity and production of reactive oxygen species in ABA-mediated stomatal closure in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell. 21: 2357-2377.

Zuo, Y., D.Z. Zhuang, R. Han, G. Isaac, J.J. Manning, M. McKee, R. Welti, J.L. Brissette, M.L. Fitzgerald, and M.W. Freeman. 2009. ABCA12 maintains the epidermal lipid permeability barrier via formation of ceramide linoleic esters. J. Biol. Chem. 284: 3345–3353.

Botté, Cyrille, Saïdani, Nadia, Mondragon, Ricardo, Gonzales, Sirenia, Isaac, Giorgis, Mui, Ernest, McLeod, Rima, Dubremetz, Jean-François, Vial, Henri, Welti, Ruth, Cesbron-Delauw, Marie-France, Mercier, Corinne, and Maréchal, Eric.  2008. Subcellular localization and dynamics of a digalactolipid-like lipid along the life cycle of the apicomplexan parasite Toxoplasma gondii. J. Lipid Res. 49: 746-762.

Chaturvedi, Ratnesh,  Krothapalli, Kartikeya, Makandar, Ragiba, Nandi, Ashis,  Sparks, Alexis, Roth, Mary, Welti, Ruth, and Shah, Jyoti. 2008. Plastid ω3-fatty acid desaturase-dependent accumulation of a systemic acquired resistance inducing activity in petiole exudates of Arabidopsis thaliana is independent of jasmonic acid. Plant J. 54: 106-117.

Hong, Yueyun, Pan, Xiangqing,  Welti, Ruth, and Wang, Xuemin. 2008. Alterations of phospholipase Dα3 change Arabidopsis response to salinity and water deficits. Plant Cell 20: 803-816.

Hong, Yueyun, Pan, Xiangqing, Welti, Ruth, and Wang, Xuemin. 2008. The effect of phospholipase Dα3 on Arabidopsis response to hyperosmotic stress and glucose. Plant Signal Behav. 3, 1099-1100.

Li, Weiqi, Wang, Ruiping, Li, Maoyin, Li, Lixia, Wang, Chuanming, Welti, Ruth, and Wang, Xuemin.  2008. Differential degradation of extraplastidic and plastidic lipids during freezing and post-freezing recovery in Arabidopsis thaliana. J. Biol. Chem. 283: 461-468.

Maeda, Hiroshi, Sage, Tammy L., Isaac, Giorgis, Welti, Ruth, and DellaPenna, Dean. 2008. Tocopherols modulate extra-plastidic polyunsaturated fatty acid metabolism in Arabidopsis at low temperature. Plant Cell 20: 452-470.

Moreau, Robert A., Doehlert, Douglas C., Welti, Ruth, Isaac, Giorgis, Roth, Mary, Tamura, Pamela, and Nuñez, Alberto. 2008. The identification of mono-, di-, tri-, and tetragalactosyl-diacylglycerols and their natural estolides in oat kernels. Lipids 43: 533-548.

Pan, Xiangqing, Welti, Ruth, and Wang, Xuemin.  2008. Simultaneous quantification of phytohormones and related metabolites in crude plant extracts by liquid chromatography-electrospray tandem mass spectrometryPhytochemistry  69: 1773-1781.

Bartz, R., Li, W.-H., Venables, B., Zehmer, J., Welti, R., Anderson, R., Liu, P., and Chapman, K.D.  2007. Lipidomics reveals adiposomes store ether lipids and mediate phospholipid traffic.  J. Lipid Res. 48: 837-847.

Devaiah, S.P., Pan, X., Hong, Y., Roth, M.R., Welti, R., and Wang, X.  2007.  Enhancing seed quality and viability by suppressing phospholipase D in Arabidopsis. The Plant Journal 50: 950-957.

Esch, S.W., Tamura, P., Sparks, A.A., Roth, M.R., Devaiah, S. P., Heinz, E., Wang, X., Williams, Todd D., and Welti, R.  2007. Rapid characterization of fatty acyl composition of complex lipids by collision-induced dissociation time-of-flight mass spectrometry.  J. Lipid. Res. 48: 235-241.

Fitzgerald, M.L., Xavier, R., Haley, K.J., Welti, R., Goss, J.L., Brown, C.E., Zhuang, D., Bell, S.A., Lu, N., Mckee, M., Seed, B., and Freeman, M.W.  2007. ABCA3 inactivation in mice causes respiratory failure, loss of pulmonary surfactant and depletion of lung phosphatidylglycerol.  J. Lipid Res. 48: 621-632.

Fritz, M., Lokstein, H., Hackenberg, D., Welti, R., Roth, M., Zähringer, U., Fulda, M., Hellmeyer, W., Ott, C., Wolter, F.P., and Heinz, E.  2007. Chanelling of eukaryotic diacylglycerol into the biosynthesis of plastidial phosphatidylglycerol.  J. Biol. Chem. 282: 4613-4625.

Hsu, F.-F., Turk, J., Williams, T.D., and Welti, R. 2007. Electrospray ionization multiple stage quadrupole ion-trap and tandem quadrupole mass spectrometric studies on phosphatidylglycerol from Arabidopsis leaves.  J. Am. Soc. Mass Spec. 18: 783-790.

Isaac, G., R. Jeannotte, S.W. Esch, and R. Welti.  2007. New mass-spectrometry-based strategies for lipidsGen. Eng. Rev. 28: 129-157.

Welti, Ruth, Mui, Ernie, Sparks, Alexis, Wernimont, Sarah, Isaac, Giorgis, Kirisits, Michael, Roth, Mary, Roberts, Craig W., Botté, Cyrille, Maréchal, Eric, and McLeod, Rima.  2007. Lipidomic analysis of T. gondii reveals unusual polar lipids. Biochemistry 46: 13882-13890.

Welti, R., Shah, J., Li, W., Li, M., Chen, J., Burke, J.J., Fauconnier, M.-L., Chapman, K., Chye, M.-L., and Wang, X.  2007.  Plant lipidomics: Discerning biological function by profiling plant complex lipids using mass spectrometryFrontiers in Bioscience 12: 2494-2506.

Yang, W., Devaiah, S., Pan, X., Isaac, G., Welti, R., and Wang, X. 2007. AtPLAI is an LRR-containing acyl hydrolase involved in basal jasmonic acid production and Arabidopsis resistance to Botrytis cinerea.  J. Biol. Chem. 282: 18116-18128.

Buseman, C.M., P. Tamura, A.A. Sparks, E.J. Baughman, S. Maatta, J. Zhao, M.R. Roth, S.W. Esch, J. Shah, T.D. Williams, and R. Welti.  2006. Wounding stimulates the accumulation of glycerolipids containing oxophytodienoic acid and dinor-oxophytodienoic acid in Arabidopsis leavesPlant Physiol. 142: 28-39.

Devaiah, S.P., M.R. Roth, E. Baughman, M. Li, P. Tamura, R. Jeannotte, R. Welti, and X. Wang.  2006.  Quantitative profiling of polar glycerolipid species and the role of phospholipase Dá1 in defining the lipid species in Arabidopsis tissuesPhytochem 67: 1907-1924.

Li, M., R. Welti, and X. Wang.  2006.  Quantitative profiling ofArabidopsis polar plycerolipids in response to phosphate starvation.  Roles of PLDzeta1 and PLDzeta2 in phosphatidylcholine hydrolysis and digalactosyldiacylglycerol accumulation in phosphate-starved rootPlant Physiol.  142: 750-761.

Li, M., C. Qin, R. Welti, and X. Wang. 2006. Double knockouts of phospholipase Dzeta1 and Dzeta2 in Arabidopsis affect root elongation under phosphate limitation, but do not affect root hair patterning. Plant Physiol. 140: 761-770. 

Wang, X., S.P. Devaiah, W. Zhang, and R. Welti.  2006. Signaling functions of phosphatidic acid. Prog. Lipid Res. 45: 250-278. 

Wang, X., W. Li, M. Li, and R. Welti. 2006. Profiling lipid changes in plant response to low temperaturesPhys. Plantarum 126: 90-96.

Wanjie, S.W., R. Welti, R.A. Moreau, and K.D. Chapman.  2005.  Identification and quantification of glycerolipids in cotton fibers: Reconciliation with metabolic pathway predictions from DNA databases. Lipids 40: 773-785.

Welti, R., J. Shah, S. LeVine, S.W. Esch, T.D. Williams, and X. Wang.  2005.  High throughput lipid profiling to identify and characterize genes involved in lipid metabolism, signaling, and stress response.  In Functional Lipidomics (Chapter 14), L. Feng and G.D. Prestwich, eds. Marcel Dekker, New York, pp. 307-322.

Abbadi A, F. Domergue, J. Bauer, J.A. Napier, R. Welti, U. Zahringer, P. Cirpus, and E. Heinz.  2004.   Biosynthesis of Very-Long-Chain Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids in Transgenic Oilseeds: Constraints on Their AccumulationPlant Cell 16:2734 - 2748.

Li, W., M. Li, W. Zhang, R. Welti, X. Wang. 2004. The plasma membrane-bound phospholipase D  enhances freezing tolerance in Arabidopsis. Nature Biotech 22: 427 - 433.

Nandi, A., R. Welti and J. Shah. 2004. The Arabidopsis thaliana dihydroxyacetone phosphate reductase gene supressor of fatty acid desaturase deficiency1 is required for glycerolipid metabolism and for the activation of systemic acquired resistance. Plant Cell 16: 465-477.

Welti, R., and X. Wang. 2004. Lipid species profiling: A high throughput approach to identify lipid compositional changes and determine the function of genes involved in lipid metabolism and signaling.  Curr. Opin. Plant Biol.  7:337-344.

Fauconnier, M.-L., R. Welti, E. Blée, and M. Marlier.  2003.  Lipid and oxylipin profiles during aging and sprout development in potato tubers (Solanum tuberosum L.)Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1633: 118-126.

Fauconnier, M.-L., T.D. Williams, M. Marlier, and R. Welti.  2003.  Potato tuber phospholipids contain colneleic acid in the 2-position. FEBS Letters 538: 155-158.

Nandi, A., K. Krothapalli, C.M. Buseman, M. Li, R. Welti, A. Enyedi, and J. Shah.  2003.  The Arabidopsis thaliana sfd mutants affect plastidic lipid composition and suppress dwarfing, cell death and the enhanced disease resistance phenotypes resulting from the deficiency of a fatty acid desaturase. Plant Cell 15: 2383-2398.

Welti, R., X. Wang, and T.D. Williams.  2003.  Electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry scan modes for plant chloroplast lipids. Anal. Biochem. 314: 149-152.

Welti, R. and X. Wang.  2003.  LipidomicsINFORM 14: 607-608. (October 2003) 

Zhang, W., C. Wang, C. Qin, T. Wood, G. Olafsdottir, R. Welti, and X. Wang.  2003.  The Oleate-stimulated Phospholipase D, PLD{delta} and Phosphatidic Acid Decrease H2O2-Induced Cell Death in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell 15: 2285-2295.

Wang, X., C. Wang, Y. Sang, C. Qin, and R. Welti. 2002. Networking of Phospholipases in Plant Signal Transduction.  Physiologia Plantarum 115: 331-335.

Welti, R., W. Li, M. Li, Y. Sang, H. Biesiada, H. Zhou, C.B. Rajashekar, T.D. Williams, and X. Wang.  2002.  Profiling membrane lipids in plant stress responses: Role of phospholipase D{alpha} in freezing-induced lipid changes in Arabidopsis. J. Biol. Chem. 277: 31994-32002.

Zien, C.A., C. Wang, X. Wang, and R. Welti. 2001. In-vivo substrates and the contribution of the common phospholipase D, PLDalpha , to wound-induced metabolism of lipids in Arabidopsis. Biochim. Biophys. Acta [Molecular and Cell Biology of Lipids] 1530: 236-248.

Wang, C., C.A. Zien, M. Afitlhile, R. Welti, D.F. Hildebrand, X. Wang. 2000. Involvement of phospholipase D in wound-induced accumulation of jasmonic acid in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell 12: 2237-2246.

 

Complete List of Research Publications -(PDF)


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