There is a growing interest in expanding the use of MALDI-MSI into fields such as environmental science, food science, and natural product research. Preserving the spatial component of analytical data in environmental science is especially important to understanding the underlying biological and chemical relationships within and among samples, as specimens rarely occur alone in nature. As the application of MALDI-MSI technology to different fields of science continues to grow, it is important that validated protocols are shared and established in the literature.
HTX AN-44 MSI of Moss, Fungus, and Cyanobacteria on Agar to Investigate Tripartite Metabolic Interactions
Visualizing microbial interactions with MALDI MSI has provided many insights into important biological processes, including metabolic exchange, antibiotic resistance, and microbial competition. Here, we detail a complete experimental workflow for MALDI-MSI of microbial cultures grown on agar, wherein we investigate the different ecological roles of members of a peatland environment.
HTX AN-45 Profiling Lipidomic & Metabolic Changes of Barley Roots by MSI
As plant roots are one of the first organs to encounter and respond to environmental pressures in the soil, such as salinity stress, profiling the metabolic changes that occur in saline-stressed roots is of critical importance in order to understand the consequences of increasing soil salinity. However, plant roots are complex structures with developmental zones characterized by distinct metabolic profiles. Here, we profile the metabolic differences between control and acute salt-stressed seminal barley roots in four different root areas.