Accelerating strain phenotyping with desorption electrospray ionization-imaging mass spectrometry and untargeted analysis of intact microbial colonies
Abstract
Synthetic biology has entered an era in which reading and writing DNA sequences are no longer rate-limiting steps in microbial strain engineering. Indeed, analytical methods measuring the resulting metabolic outcomes of specific gene edits have lagged behind the ability to generate new recombinant strains. Herein, we report a mass spectrometry strategy to accelerate these analytical workflows by directly analyzing metabolites and molecules produced from engineered microorganisms in a multiplexed process. Using untargeted acquisitions and unsupervised analytics, we assess the molecular features that change across discrete strains including primary target species, secondary products, and species outside the engineered fatty acid biosynthesis pathway.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Dec 02, 2021
- Source ID
- 10.1073/pnas.2109633118
Entities
People
- Berkley M Ellis
- Brian F Pfleger
- Carl H. Johnson
- Jamey D Young
- Jody C May
- John A. McLean
- Piyoosh Kumar Babele
Organizations
- National Institutes of Health
- United States Department of Energy
- United States Environmental Protection Agency
- University of Wisconsin–Madison
- Vanderbilt University