Observing the invisible through imaging mass spectrometry, a window into the metabolic exchange patterns of microbes.
Many microbes can be cultured as single-species communities. Often, these colonies are controlled and maintained via the secretion of metabolites. Such metabolites have been an invaluable resource for the discovery of therapeutics (e.g. penicillin, taxol, rapamycin, epothilone). In this article, written for a special issue on imaging mass spectrometry, we show that MALDI-imaging mass spectrometry can be adapted to observe, in a spatial manner, the metabolic exchange patterns of a diverse array of microbes, including thermophilic and mesophilic fungi, cyanobacteria, marine and terrestrial actinobacteria, and pathogenic bacteria. Dependent on media conditions, on average and based on manual analysis, we observed 11.3 molecules associated with each microbial IMS experiment, which was split nearly 50:50 between secreted and colony-associated molecules. The spatial distributions of these metabolic exchange factors are related to the biological and ecological functions of the organisms. This work establishes that MALDI-based IMS can be used as a general tool to study a diverse array of microbes. Furthermore the article forwards the notion of the IMS platform as a window to discover previously unreported molecules by monitoring the metabolic exchange patterns of organisms when grown on agar substrates.
Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Diego, United States.
David J
DJ
Gonzalez
Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California, San Diego, United States.
Yuquan
Y
Xu
Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California, San Diego, United States.
Yu-Liang
YL
Yang
Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California, San Diego, United States; Center for Marine Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, United States.
Eduardo
E
Esquenazi
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, San Diego, United States.
Wei-Ting
WT
Liu
Center for Marine Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, United States.
Anna
A
Edlund
Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California, San Diego, United States.
Tram
T
Duong
Department of Chemistry, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, United States.
Liangcheng
L
Du
Natural Products Center, School of Natural Resources and the Environment, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, United States.
István
I
Molnár
Center for Marine Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, United States.
William H
WH
Gerwick
Center for Marine Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, United States.
Paul R
PR
Jensen
Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, United States.
Michael
M
Fischbach
Department of Marine Biotechnology and Resources, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung 804, Taiwan.
Chih-Chuang
CC
Liaw
Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Texas A&M University, College Station, United States.
Paul
P
Straight
Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Diego, United States.
Victor
V
Nizet
Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California, San Diego, United States; Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, San Diego, United States; Center for Marine Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, United States. Electronic address: pdorrestein@ucsd.edu.
Pieter C
PC
Dorrestein
D001407:Bacillus / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D001419:Bacteria / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging / Q000379:methods; D005658:Fungi / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D053528:Lysobacter / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D013058:Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods*; D008660:Metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D056265:Microbial Interactions / Q000502:physiology; D008828:Microbiological Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D008954:Models, Biological; D019370:Observation; D011549:Pseudomonas / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D019032:Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization / Q000379:methods