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Live Single-Cell Metabolomics With Matrix-Free Laser/Desorption Ionization Mass Spectrometry to Address Microalgal Physiology.

ABSTRACT: Unicellular phototrophic algae can form massive blooms with up to millions of individual cells per milliliter in freshwater and marine ecosystems. Despite the temporal dominance of bloom formers many algal species can co-exist and compete for nutrients and space, creating a complex and diverse community. While microscopy and single cell genomics can address the taxonomic inventory, the cellular metabolome has yet to be thoroughly explored to determine the physiological status of microalgae. This might, however, provide a key to understand the observed species diversity in the homogeneous environment. Here, we introduce an effective, rapid and versatile method to analyze living single cells from aqueous substrata with laser-desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (LDI-MS) using a simple and inexpensive matrix-free support. The cells deposited on a cultivation-medium wetted support are analyzed with minimal disturbance as they remain in their natural viable state until their disruption during LDI-MS. Metabolites desorbed from single cells are analyzed on High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry (HR-MS) using the Orbitrap FT-MS technology to fingerprint cellular chemistry. This live single-cell mass spectrometry (LSC-MS) allows assessing the physiological status and strain-specifics of different microalgae, including marine diatoms and freshwater chlorophytes, at the single-cell level. We further report a reliable and robust data treatment pipeline to perform multivariate statistics on the replicated LSC-MS data. Comparing single cell MS spectra from natural phytoplankton samples and from laboratory strains allows the identification and discrimination of inter and intra-specific metabolic variability and thereby has promising applications in addressing highly complex phytoplankton communities. Notably, the herein described matrix-free live-single-cell LDI-HR-MS approach enables monitoring dynamics of the plankton and might explain why key-players survive, thrive, avoid selective feeding or pathogenic virus and bacteria, while others are overcome and die.

SUBMITTER: Baumeister TUH

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6387974 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Streptococcus suis, particularly S. suis serotype 2 (SS2), is an important zoonotic pathogen causing meningitis in humans worldwide. Although the proper classification of the causative and pathogenic serotype is salutary for the clinical diagnosis, cross-reactions leading to the indistinguishability of serotypes by the current serotyping methods are significant limitations. In the present study, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS) analysis of extracted peptides was developed to improve the classification of serotype of S. suis. The peptide mass fingerprint (PMFs) database of S. suis was generated from the whole-cell peptides of 32 reference strains of S. suis isolates obtained from pigs. Thirty-two human S. suis isolates from clinical cases in Thailand were used to validate this alternative serotyping method in direct comparison to the multiplex (m)PCR approach. All reference strains, representing 32 serotypes of S. suis, exhibited their individual PMFs patterns, thus allowing differentiation from one another. Highly pathogenic SS2 and SS14 were clearly differentiated from the otherwise serologically closely related SS1/2 and SS1, respectively. The developed MALDI-TOF-MS serotyping method correctly classified the serotype in 68.8% (22/32) of the same serotype isolates generated from the PMFs database; while the validity for the clinical human isolates was 62.5% (20/32). The agreement between the MALDI-TOF-MS and mPCR serotyping was moderate with a Kappa score of 0.522, considering that mPCR could correctly serotype up to 75%. The present study demonstrated that PMFs from the developed MALDI-TOF-MS-based method could successfully discriminate the previously indistinguishable highly pathogenic SS2 and SS14 from SS1/2 and SS1, respectively. Moreover, this serotyping method distinguished pathogenic SS6, and so is an alternative approach of choice to rapidly and reliably serotype clinically pathogenic S. suis isolates.

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Live Single-Cell Metabolomics With Matrix-Free Laser/Desorption Ionization Mass Spectrometry to Address Microalgal Physiology.

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