Exploring the Biotechnological Potential of Endophytic Fungi Using Online Automated Sample Preparation GC-MS

Martin Perkins

13th December 2017

Metabolomics investigates the metabolite composition of a cell type, tissue, or biological fluid via analysis of the complete set of metabolites also known as the metabolome and are the most informative representations of the biochemical activity of an organism. Metabolic profiling can be carried out by two main approaches: targeted and untargeted. This application note demonstrates an online, automated untargeted analysis, using methoximation-silylation (MOX-TMS) derivatisation of three species of endophytic fungi. Statistical analysis of the results using Agilent’s Mass Profiler Professional (MPP) – using both Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and hierarchical dendrograms showed that this method could effectively separate the three species. Metabolomics often involves large sample numbers and the ability to automate procedures offers considerable advantages to the analyst, often with improved data quality. Reducing analytical variability can be key to obtaining correct information from subsequent statistical analysis.