Metabolic Differences in Microbial Cell Populations Revealed by Nanophotonic Ionization

Abstract

ellular differences are linked to cell differentiation, the proliferation of cancer and to the development of drug resistance in microbial infections. Due to sensitivity limitations, however, large- scale metabolic analysis at the single cell level is only available for cells significantly larger in volume than Saccharomyces cerevisiae (~30 fL). Here we demonstrate that by a nanophotonic ionization platform and mass spectrometry, over one hundred up to 108 metabolites, or up to 18% of the known S. cerevisiae metabolome, can be identified in very small cell populations (n < 100). Under ideal conditions, r Relative quantitation of up to 4% of the metabolites is achieved at the single cell level.