Detection and Quantitation of Bacterial Acylhomoserine Lactone Quorum Sensing Molecules via Liquid Chromatography–Isotope Dilution Tandem Mass Spectrometry
作者:Amanda L. May、Mary E. Eisenhauer、Kristen S. Coulston、Shawn R. Campagna
DOI:10.1021/ac202636d
日期:2012.2.7
A range of acylhomoserine lactones (AHLs) are used as intraspecies quorum sensing signals by Gram-negative bacteria, and the detection and quantitation of these molecules is of interest. This manuscript reports a liquid chromatographic–isotope dilution tandem mass spectrometric method for the quantitation of these molecules. A divergent solid-phase synthesis of stable-isotope-labeled AHLs suitable for use as an internal standard is reported. This route relies on the biomimetic conversion of a dideuterated methionine equivalent, N-Fmoc-(4,4-2H2)methionine, to the desired labeled AHL, and a representative series of eight of these molecules was produced in >95% purity and yields up to ∼50%. The representative AHL internal standards were then used to develop an optimized liquid chromatography—tandem mass spectrometric (LC–MS/MS) separation and detection protocol for these molecules, which relies on a high-efficiency C18 core–shell column to minimize the time necessary for separation. The addition of internal standards at different steps during sampling was also found to affect the analysis for hydrophobic AHLs with addition prior to cell removal giving the most accurate results. Taken together, the use of the internal standards and separation method reported herein provides a rapid and quantitative method for the study of AHL production in bacteria.
一系列酰基高丝氨酸内酯(AHLs)作为革兰氏阴性菌的种内群体感应信号分子,对这些分子的检测和定量研究具有重要意义。本文报道了一种液相色谱-同位素稀释串联质谱法用于这些分子的定量分析。文中还报道了一种固相合成适合作内标物的稳定同位素标记AHLs的方法。该合成路线依赖于生物模拟转化二氘代甲硫氨酸类似物N-Fmoc-(4,4-2H2)甲硫氨酸至所需标记AHL的过程。我们成功制备了八个代表性分子,纯度>95%,产率高达约50%。然后,使用这些代表性AHL内部标准物,开发了一套优化的液相色谱-串联质谱(LC-MS/MS)分离与检测方案,该方案依赖于高效C18核壳柱以最小化分离所需时间。在采样过程中不同步骤添加内标物对疏水性AHL分析的影响也得到了研究,发现在细胞去除前添加内标物可获得最准确的结果。综上所述,本文报道的内标物和分离方法提供了一种快速且定量的方法用于研究细菌中AHL的产生。