1. Mass spectrometry approaches to metabolic profiling of microbial communities within the human gastrointestinal tract.
- Author
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Cameron, Simon J.S. and Takáts, Zoltán
- Subjects
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MICROBIAL communities , *GASTROINTESTINAL system , *MASS spectrometry , *METABOLITES , *MICROBIOLOGY - Abstract
Highlights • Mass spectrometry provides an ideal tool for metabolic profiling of microbial communities. • Wide range of approaches suited for different metabolites of interest. • Field of ambient ionisation mass spectrometry highly promising for rapid analysis. • Experimental approach needed to separate correlation and causality. Abstract The interaction between microbial communities and their environment, such as the human gastrointestinal tract, has been an area of microbiology rapidly advanced, by developments in sequencing technology. However, these techniques are largely limited to the detection of the taxonomic composition of a microbial community and/or its genetic functional capacity. Here, we discuss a range of mass spectrometry-based approaches which researchers can employ to explore the host-microbiome interactions at the metabolic level. Traditional approaches to mass spectrometry are detailed, alongside new developments in the field, namely ambient ionisation mass spectrometry and imaging mass spectrometry, which we believe will prove to be important to future work in this field. We further discuss considerations for experimental workflows, data analysis options and propose a methodology for the establishment of causal relationships between functional host-microbiome interactions with regards to health and disease in the human gastrointestinal tract. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2018
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