Abstract：
As an impressive mass spectrometry technology, mass spectrometric imaging (MSI) can provide mass spectra data and spatial distribution of analytes simultaneously. MSI has been widely used in diverse fields such as clinical diagnosis, the pharmaceutical industry and environmental study due to its accuracy, high resolution and developing reproducibility. Natural products (NPs) have been a critical source of leading drugs; almost half of marketed drugs are derived from NPs or their derivatives. The continuous search for bioactive NPs from microorganisms or microbiomes has always been attractive. MSI allows us to analyze and characterize NPs directly in monocultured microorganisms or a microbial community. In this review, we briefly introduce current mainstream ionization technologies for microbial samples and the key issue of sample preparation, and then summarize some applications of MSI in the exploration of microbial NPs and metabolic interaction, especially NPs from marine microbes. Additionally, remaining challenges and future prospects are discussed.
摘要：
作为一项令人印象深刻的质谱技术，质谱成像(MSI)可以同时提供分析物的质谱数据和空间分布。MSI已广泛应用于临床诊断、制药工业和环境研究由于其准确性，高分辨率和开发再现性。天然产物（NP）一直是主要药物的关键来源；几乎一半的上市药物来自NP或其衍生物。从微生物或微生物群落中不断寻找生物活性NP一直是有吸引力的。MSI允许我们直接分析和表征单一型微生物或微生物群落中的NP。在这次审查中,简要介绍了当前微生物样品的主流电离技术和样品制备的关键问题，然后总结了MSI在探索微生物NPs和代谢相互作用中的一些应用，特别是来自海洋微生物的NP。此外,讨论了剩余的挑战和未来的前景。
