Metabolites on the inside | Nature Chemistry

Access through your institution Buy or subscribe _Angew. Chem. Int. Ed._ 51, 10386–10389 (2012) To demonstrate the potential of their method, the team analysed the metabolites inside plant

cells from an _Allium cepa_ (onion) bulb. In the first step, a microdissection needle cuts a hole in the cell membrane while leaving the organelles intact. Only a single cell is cut open

during dissection and the neighbouring cells remain undamaged. In the next step, an optical fibre with a 15-μm tip is used to direct a laser IR pulse at a specific region. The pulse creates

a plume of ejected material that is ionized and characterized using electrospray mass spectrometry to identify the metabolites present. The sharpened tip of the optical microfibre is a

similar size to the cell nucleus, which enables the team to selectively ablate it — although some cross contamination with the surrounding cytoplasm is inevitable. Aiming the optical fibre

solely at the cytoplasm allowed for the selective analysis of the metabolites present outside the nucleus. This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution ACCESS

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institutional subscriptions * Read our FAQs * Contact customer support Authors * Russell Johnson View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar RIGHTS

AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Johnson, R. Metabolites on the inside. _Nature Chem_ 4, 867 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.1493 Download

citation * Published: 23 October 2012 * Issue Date: November 2012 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.1493 SHARE THIS ARTICLE Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read

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