Article Figures & Data
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- FIG 1
Pathogenic and symbiotic bacteria have intimate relationships with their hosts resulting in complex chemical communication. We propose this workflow to identify and elucidate the molecular mechanisms and structures produced in host-microbe interactions. This will allow us to connect the presence and production of SMs to their respective gene clusters in the microbial genome. We first investigate these interactions at a macroscopic level and then observe them at a microscopic level using IMS to examine tissue samples. This technique lends itself to high spatial resolution analyses for untargeted metabolomics; however, it is also disadvantageous because it is destructive to the sample, which can make it difficult to integrate it with other types of analyses such as microbial sequencing. A possible way to overcome this would be to designate every other tissue slice for different analysis techniques or require biological replicates. Industrial and academic labs are actively creating software that can incorporate statistical analyses for IMS data sets, such as SCiLs. This allows for the easy identification of exogenous metabolites in host samples, such as is the case of 5α-cyprinol sulfate, a bile salt originating from fish intestines. This information will then enable us to better connect a genotype with an observed chemotype and phenotype within a system, leading to a better understanding of chemical communication in host-microbe interactions. The IMS data sets of the zebrafish intestines and squid hatchling were obtained using spatial resolutions of 50 μm and 20 μm, respectively. Both samples used a 50:50 (wt/wt) mixture of α-cyano-4-hydroxycinnamic acid and 2,5-dihydroxybenzoic acid as a matrix.
