Ion mobility mass spectrometer

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Plants are able to synthesize thousands of secondary metabolites, with specific functions in all aspects of plant life and interaction with the environment. The research in the mechanistic understanding of the specific functions of these metabolites, e.g. human health or in interaction with other organisms, such as in the microbiota, is, hampered by the inability to specifically detect and identify the metabolites in complex mixtures. Classical mass-spectrometry based analyses are able to determine precise molecular weights of the metabolites and identify functional groups, but dozens of compounds may correspond to these characteristics. Therefore, identification of individual metabolites is one of the greatest challenges for untargeted metabolomics. Recently, ion mobility-mass spectrometry (IM-MS), which enables the separation of metabolite isomers and generation of multidimension data, has emerged as a powerful technology for untargeted metabolomics. Ion mobility technology separates ions according to their differential movements under the influence of an electric field, and enables to separate the ions with different charges, structures, and conformations. This technique thus can distinguish individual natural compounds with the same chemical formula, a step change in the analysis of plant metabolites. Our research aims at understanding mechanisms that govern plant-microbe and microbe-microbe interactions in the phyllosphere (above-ground) as well as in the rhizosphere (below-ground), is firmly embedded in the research mission of the Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences (CEPLAS), and underpins the strategic development of the University of Cologne. To date several metabolites that act in these interactions have been uncovered, but further progress is limited by the lack of analytical capacity. We, therefore, propose to purchase a Cyclic Ion Mobility Mass Spectrometer, which will allow us to find active components in complex mixtures of phyllosphere and rhizosphere metabolites. A more comprehensive dissection of metabolic networks will identify specific metabolites governing the interactions between plants and their associated microbiota, which will enable to use such metabolites to engineer microbial communities to fulfil specific functions in particular environmental conditions. The same principles behind the mechanisms of plants shaping their microbiota, or microbes shaping microbial communities in their surroundings, can be expected in other organisms, and can contribute for instance to better understanding of the function of microbiota in human health. The new analytic capabilities provided by the IM-MS are the key to this development.