作为表型工具的真菌物种的元素谱分析是一个未被研究的主题,通常用于检查植物组织或非生物材料。传统的分析技术,如电感耦合等离子体发射光谱法(ICP-OES)和电感耦合等离子体质谱法(ICP-MS)已被用于鉴定真菌的元素谱;然而,由于制备样品的难度,这些技术可能很麻烦。此外,用于这些技术的仪器可能是昂贵的采购和操作。激光诱导击穿光谱(LIBS)是一种替代的元素分析技术,在元素周期表中非常敏感,易于在各种样品类型上使用,并且在采购和运营方面都具有成本效益。LIBS尚未用于在基质培养基中生长的无菌丝状真菌分离株。在这项工作中,作为概念的证明,我们对在营养丰富和营养缺乏的基质培养基上生长的两种遗传上不同的真菌物种使用了LIBS,以确定是否可以检测到稳健的元素谱以及是否可以鉴定真菌分离株之间的差异.我们的结果表明真菌物种和它们的元素特征之间有明显的相关性,无论基底介质如何,因为相同的菌株对碳的吸收相似,锌,磷,锰,还有镁,这对它们的生存和传播起着至关重要的作用。独立地,每个真菌物种都表现出独特的元素特征。这项工作展示了一种独特而有价值的方法,通过光谱学快速表型真菌,这种方法对于理解这些真菌的行为和与环境的相互作用至关重要。
目标:历史上,ionomics,有机体或材料的元素特征,已用于了解废物材料中的元素组成,以识别和回收重金属或稀土元素,在月球或火星的太空探索中识别土壤成分,或了解人类疾病或疾病。据我们所知,微生物的生物学特征,特别是真菌,尚未进行研究以回答应用和基本的生物学问题。原因是当前的离子分析技术在样品制备中可能很费力,无法准确测量所有潜在元素,成本过高,或跨复制提供不一致的结果。在我们以前的努力中,我们探讨了激光诱导击穿光谱(LIBS)是否可用于确定杨树组织的元素分布,这是成功的。在这个概念验证的努力中,我们在应用和基础真菌学和元素分析技术之间进行了跨学科的努力,以解决生物学问题,即LIBS如何用于在营养丰富和营养贫乏的环境中生长的真菌。
Elemental profiling of fungal species as a phenotyping tool is an understudied topic and is typically performed to examine plant tissue or non-biological materials. Traditional analytical techniques such as inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) have been used to identify elemental profiles of fungi; however, these techniques can be cumbersome due to the difficulty of preparing samples. Additionally, the instruments used for these techniques can be expensive to procure and operate. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (
LIBS) is an alternative elemental analytical technique-one that is sensitive across the periodic table, easy to use on various sample types, and is cost-effective in both procurement and operation.
LIBS has not been used on axenic filamentous fungal isolates grown in substrate media. In this work, as a proof of concept, we used
LIBS on two genetically distinct fungal species grown on a nutrient-rich and nutrient-poor substrate media to determine whether robust elemental profiles can be detected and whether differences between the fungal isolates can be identified. Our results demonstrate a distinct correlation between fungal species and their elemental profile, regardless of the substrate media, as the same strains shared a similar uptake of carbon, zinc, phosphorus, manganese, and magnesium, which could play a vital role in their survival and propagation. Independently, each fungal species exhibited a unique elemental profile. This work demonstrates a unique and valuable approach to rapidly phenotype fungi through optical spectroscopy, and this approach can be critical in understanding these fungi\'s behavior and interactions with the environment.
OBJECTIVE: Historically, ionomics, the elemental profiling of an organism or materials, has been used to understand the elemental composition in waste materials to identify and recycle heavy metals or rare earth elements, identify the soil composition in space exploration on the moon or Mars, or understand human disorders or disease. To our knowledge, ionomic profiling of microbes, particularly fungi, has not been investigated to answer applied and fundamental biological questions. The reason is that current ionomic analytical techniques can be laborious in sample preparation, fail to measure all potential elements accurately, are cost-prohibitive, or provide inconsistent results across replications. In our previous efforts, we explored whether laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (
LIBS) could be used in determining the elemental profiles of poplar tissue, which was successful. In this proof-of-concept endeavor, we undertook a transdisciplinary effort between applied and fundamental mycology and elemental analytical techniques to address the biological question of how
LIBS can used for fungi grown axenically in a nutrient-rich and nutrient-poor environment.