Expanding white wine peptide coverage through an integrated LC-MS workflow

Abstract

Peptides are attracting growing interest as contributors to the main qualitative characteristics of wine, including oxidative stability, aromatic development, and mouthfeel impact (1,2). Their composition results from grape and yeast proteins and evolves throughout fermentation and aging (3). While glutathione remains the most studied peptide, growing evidence suggests that other short peptides may also influence wine quality (2,4). However, their low abundance and the complexity of the wine matrix have often complicated their purification and detection, thereby limiting our understanding of their potential oenological roles. Recent advances achieved in our laboratory has led to the development of an integrated analytical method combining cation exchange solid-phase extraction (SPE) for peptide enrichment, with complementary reverse-phase (RP) and hydrophilic interaction (HILIC) chromatography and high-resolution mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS) (5). A preliminary application on a single wine sample revealed a rich diversity of low molecular weight potential peptides covering a wide range of polarity. These results confirmed the sensitivity and robustness of the method and supported its use for a broader comparative study across multiple wines. Building on this validated approach, the present study aims to explore peptide diversity in wines from different grape varieties and regions from Southwest France to Burgundy, with the objective to establish characteristic peptide signatures from national to plot scales. This exhaustive sampling, covering more than sixty wines, provides a large and diverse dataset, allowing robust discrimination and enriching the peptides database. In parallel, antioxidant capacity assessed by the DPPH assay is used to explore potential correlations between specific peptides features and the antioxidant properties of wines. This approach should better characterize peptide-linked antioxidant patterns and thereby improve the assessment of wine oxidative stability across diverse wines. The study is expected to uncover low-abundance, low-molecular-weight peptides that may serve as new markers of oxidative stability.

References

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5. Gisquet, J.; Bahut, F.; Nicolas, S.; Sieczkowski, N.; Gougeon, R.D.; Nikolantonaki, M. Non-Targeted Peptidomics of White Wine by Coupling Mixed-Mode SPE with RP-HILIC UHPLC-MS. Under Revision.