Profiling of plankton whole-cells using multidimensional solid-state NMR

May 15, 2015

An algal biomass analysis strategy toward water resourcification

A joint research group from RIKEN CSRS and Bruker BioSpin K.K. has succeeded in measuring and analyzing whole-cell samples of a beneficial plankton, Euglena using two-dimensional and threedimensional solid-state NMR experiments with a molecular mobility based filtering technique to separate signals that include specific structure information.

These results demonstrate that it is possible to analyze beneficial substances such as paramylon (a macromolecular polysaccharide cell component that is the major molecular species in euglenoids) and unsaturated fatty acids (used as an index for fluidity and oxidation stability) using a same sample and an equipment.

This research establishes that analysis of beneficial plankton cells can be done in their whole state using multidimensional solid-state NMR. For plankton such as euglena, using HR-MAS NMR spectroscopy also serve as a profiling method without using cell crushing or extraction processes.

Original article
Environmental Science and Technology doi: 10.1021 /acs.est.5b00837
T. Komatsu, T. Kobayashi, M. Hatanaka, J. Kikuchi,
"Profiling Planktonic Biomass Using Element-Specific, Multicomponent Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy".
Contact
Jun Kikuchi
Team Leader
Environmental Metabolic Analysis Research Team