Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Colorado, Aurora, Colorado 80045, United States.
J Am Soc Mass Spectrom. 2022 Apr 6;33(4):731-734. doi: 10.1021/jasms.1c00208. Epub 2022 Feb 24.
Microbial mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) is a powerful tool used to generate biological hypotheses about the roles of metabolites in microbial competition based upon their two-dimensional spatial distribution. The most commonly used ionization method for microbial MSI is matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI). However, medium components and microbial metabolites influence the adhesion of agar samples to the MALDI target, limiting the applicability of MALDI MSI to microbes grown on specific media. Here, we describe a three-step process using a robotic sprayer for a matrix application that improves the adherence of agar samples to the MALDI target, enabling the use of different media for microbial growth and an MSI analysis of larger sample surface areas.
微生物质谱成像（MSI）是一种强大的工具，可根据代谢物在微生物竞争中的二维空间分布，生成关于其作用的生物学假设。微生物 MSI 最常用的电离方法是基质辅助激光解吸电离（MALDI）。然而，培养基成分和微生物代谢物会影响琼脂样品在 MALDI 靶上的粘附，从而限制了 MALDI MSI 在特定培养基上培养的微生物中的适用性。在这里，我们描述了使用机器人喷雾器进行基质应用的三步过程，该过程可提高琼脂样品对 MALDI 靶的粘附性，从而能够使用不同的培养基进行微生物生长，并对更大的样品表面区域进行 MSI 分析。
