A mobile gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer for measurement of metabolites and volatile substances in biological systems

为了提高我们发展可持续农业的能力，减少投入并对气候变化做出反应，需要在田间进行农作物试验。这样的实验需要测量诸如代谢物之类的化合物，或者是生活在作物附近的生物所特有的化合物，这些化合物为可持续农业提供了重要组成部分。不幸的是，这些化合物中有许多不是很稳定。目前，将样品运送到实验室进行分析需要花费大量的费用和精力，而且尚不清楚分析结果是否准确地反映了植物在其田间环境中的动态。野外实验需要大量的重复，因为野外环境不是很均匀。质谱法是一种非常强大的分析工具，可以识别和测量这些化合物，但机器往往非常大。因此，直到最近，这种实地实验还需要昂贵的程序才能将材料运回实验室。然而，在过去的18个月里，一种新的质谱仪已经可用。它是一个大公文包的大小，可以带到现场进行所需的测量。本提案的目的是购买这台机器，以便机器可以在现场取样，而不是将样品带到实验室的机器上。这将提高现场实验的准确性和效率，同时降低与当前采样实践相关的成本。这种新设备将由谢菲尔德大学理学院的biOMICS质谱分析设施维护。

To improve our ability to develop a sustainable agriculture that uses lower inputs and can respond to climate change requires experimentation in the field with agricultural crops. Such experiment require measurements of compounds such as metabolites, or compounds which are characteristic of organisms that live in close proximity to crops, and which provide important components for sustainable agriculture. Unfortunately many of these compounds are not very stable. Currently much expense and effort is required to transport samples to the laboratory for analysis, and it is not clear that the analyses that result accurately reflect the dynamics of plants in their field environment. . Field experiments need large amounts of replication because the field is not a very uniform environment. Mass spectrometry is a very powerful analytical tool to identify and measure these compounds but the machines tend to be very large. Thus until recently such field experiments have required expensive procedures to transport material back to the laboratory. However during the last 18 months a new mass spectrometer has become available. It is the size of a large brief case and can be taken to the field for the measurements required. The aim of this proposal is to purchase this machine so that the machine can be taken to the sample in the field, rather than the sample taken to the machine in the laboratory. This will improve both the accuracy and the efficiency of field experiments, while at the same time reducing costs associated with current sampling practice. This new equipment will be maintained by the biOMICS Mass Spectrometry Facility in the Faculty of Science at the University of Sheffield.