Application of\nLiquid Chromatography-Ion Mobility\nSpectrometry-Mass Spectrometry-Based Metabolomics to Investigate the\nBasal Chemical Profile of Olive Cultivars Differing in Verticillium dahliae Resistance

The limited effectiveness\nof current strategies to control\nVerticillium\nwilt of olive (VWO) prompts the need for innovative approaches. This\nstudy explores the basal metabolome of 43 olive cultivars with varying\nresistance levels to <i>Verticillium dahliae</i>, offering\nalternative insights for olive crossbreeding programmes. The use of\nan innovative UHPLC-ESI-TimsTOF MS/MS platform enabled the annotation\nof more than 70 compounds across different olive organs (root, stem,\nand leaf) and the creation of a preliminary compilation of <sup>TIMS</sup>CCS<sub>N2</sub> experimental data for more reliable metabolite annotation.\nMoreover, it allowed the documentation of numerous isomeric species\nin the studied olive organs by resolving hidden compounds. Multivariate\nstatistical analyses revealed significant metabolome variability between\nhighly resistant and susceptible cultivars, which was further investigated\nthrough supervised PLS-DA. Key markers indicative of VWO susceptibility\nwere annotated and characteristic compositional patterns were established.\nStem tissue exhibited the highest discriminative capability, while\nroot and leaf tissues also showed significant predictive potential.