1. Ecology
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Digitizing mass spectrometry data to explore the chemical diversity and distribution of marine cyanobacteria and algae

  1. Tal Luzzatto Knaan  Is a corresponding author
  2. Neha Garg
  3. Mingxun Wang
  4. Evgenia Glukhov
  5. Yao Peng
  6. Gail Ackermann
  7. Amnon Amir
  8. Brendan M Duggan
  9. Sergey Ryazanov
  10. Lena Gerwick
  11. Rob Knight
  12. Theodore Alexandrov
  13. Nuno Bandeira
  14. William H Gerwick
  15. Pieter C Dorrestein
  1. University of California, San Diego, United States
  2. European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Germany
Research Article
  • Cited 17
  • Views 2,607
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Cite this article as: eLife 2017;6:e24214 doi: 10.7554/eLife.24214

Abstract

Natural product screening programs have uncovered molecules from diverse natural sources with various biological activities and unique structures. However, much is yet underexplored and additional information is hidden in these exceptional collections. We applied untargeted mass spectrometry approaches to capture the chemical space and dispersal patterns of metabolites from an in-house library of marine cyanobacterial and algal collections. Remarkably, 86% of the metabolomics signals detected were not found in other available datasets of similar nature, supporting the hypothesis that marine cyanobacteria and algae possess distinctive metabolomes. The data were plotted onto a world map representing 8 major sampling sites, and revealed potential geographic locations with high chemical diversity. We demonstrate the use of these inventories as a tool to explore the diversity and distribution of natural products. Finally, we utilized this tool to guide the isolation of a new cyclic lipopeptide, yuvalamide A, from a marine cyanobacterium.

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Tal Luzzatto Knaan

    Collaborative Mass Spectrometry Innovation Center, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, United States
    For correspondence
    tal.luzzatto@mail.huji.ac.il
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-8392-0501

  2. Neha Garg

    Collaborative Mass Spectrometry Innovation Center, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  3. Mingxun Wang

    Center for Computational Mass Spectrometry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  4. Evgenia Glukhov

    Center for Marine Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  5. Yao Peng

    Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  6. Gail Ackermann

    Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  7. Amnon Amir

    Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  8. Brendan M Duggan

    Collaborative Mass Spectrometry Innovation Center, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  9. Sergey Ryazanov

    European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, Germany
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  10. Lena Gerwick

    Center for Marine Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  11. Rob Knight

    Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  12. Theodore Alexandrov

    Collaborative Mass Spectrometry Innovation Center, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  13. Nuno Bandeira

    Collaborative Mass Spectrometry Innovation Center, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  14. William H Gerwick

    Collaborative Mass Spectrometry Innovation Center, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  15. Pieter C Dorrestein

    Collaborative Mass Spectrometry Innovation Center, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

Funding

National Institutes of Health (GM107550)

  • William H Gerwick

European Union FP7

  • Theodore Alexandrov

H2020 (305259 and 634402)

  • Theodore Alexandrov

Vaadia-BARD Fellowship no.FI-494-13

  • Tal Luzzatto Knaan

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Reviewing Editor

  1. Emmanuel Gaquerel, University of Heidelberg, Germany

Publication history

  1. Received: December 13, 2016
  2. Accepted: April 29, 2017
  3. Accepted Manuscript published: May 11, 2017 (version 1)
  4. Version of Record published: May 23, 2017 (version 2)

Copyright

© 2017, Luzzatto Knaan et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

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