Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) is a long-standing technique for the analysis of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). When coupled with the Ion Analytics software, GC/MS provides unmatched selectivity in the analysis of complex mixtures and it reduces the reliance on high-resolution chromatography to obtain clean mass spectra. Here, we present an application of spectral deconvolution, with mass spectral subtraction, to identify a wide array of VOCs in green and roasted coffees.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHumans have relied on sourdough starter microbial communities to make leavened bread for thousands of years, but only a small fraction of global sourdough biodiversity has been characterized. Working with a community-scientist network of bread bakers, we determined the microbial diversity of 500 sourdough starters from four continents. In sharp contrast with widespread assumptions, we found little evidence for biogeographic patterns in starter communities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn vitro studies in plant, soil, and human systems have shown that microbial volatiles can mediate microbe-microbe or microbe-host interactions. These previous studies have often used artificially high concentrations of volatiles compared to in situ systems and have not demonstrated the roles volatiles play in mediating community-level dynamics. We used the notoriously volatile cheese rind microbiome to identify bacteria responsive to volatiles produced by five widespread cheese fungi.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInsect herbivores have dramatic effects on the chemical composition of plants. Many of these induced metabolites contribute to the quality (e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDiversification can generate genomic and phenotypic strain-level diversity within microbial species. This microdiversity is widely recognized in populations, but the community-level consequences of microbial strain-level diversity are poorly characterized. Using the cheese rind model system, we tested whether strain diversity across microbiomes from distinct geographic regions impacts assembly dynamics and functional outputs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study applied an untargeted-targeted (UT) fingerprinting approach, based on comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC×GC-TOF MS), to assess the effects of rainfall and temperature (both seasonal and elevational) on the tea metabolome. By this strategy, the same compound found in multiple samples need only to be identified once, since chromatograms and mass spectral features are aligned in the data analysis process. Primary and specialized metabolites of leaves from two Chinese provinces, Yunnan (pu'erh) and Fujian (oolong), and a farm in South Carolina (USA, black tea) were studied.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFClimatic conditions affect the chemical composition of edible crops, which can impact flavor, nutrition and overall consumer preferences. To understand these effects, we sampled tea ( (L.) Kuntze) grown in different environmental conditions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIdentifying all analytes in a natural product is a daunting challenge, even if fractionated by volatility. In this study, comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC×GC-MS) was used to investigate relative distribution of volatiles in green, pu-erh tea from leaves collected at two different elevations (1162 m and 1651 m). A total of 317 high and 280 low elevation compounds were detected, many of them known to have sensory and health beneficial properties.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFermented foods provide novel ecological opportunities for natural populations of microbes to evolve through successive recolonization of resource-rich substrates. Comparative genomic data have reconstructed the evolutionary histories of microbes adapted to food environments, but experimental studies directly demonstrating the process of domestication are lacking for most fermented food microbes. Here, we show that during adaptation to cheese, phenotypic and metabolomic traits of wild molds rapidly change to produce domesticated phenotypes with properties similar to those of the industrial cultures used to make Camembert and other bloomy rind cheeses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFClimate change is impacting food and beverage crops around the world with implications for environmental and human well-being. While numerous studies have examined climate change effects on crop yields, relatively few studies have examined effects on crop quality (concentrations of nutrients, minerals, and secondary metabolites). This review article employs a culturally relevant beverage crop, tea (), as a lens to examine environmental effects linked to climate change on the directionality of crop quality.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPlant-climate interactions affect the edible crop composition, impacting flavor, nutrition, and overall consumer liking. In this study, principal components analysis was used to assess the macro- and micronutrient metal concentrations in pre-monsoon (spring), monsoon (summer), and post-monsoon (autumn) tea (Camelia sinensis (L.) Kuntze) from Yunnan Province, China in 2014-2016.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFClimatic conditions affect the chemical composition of edible crops, which can impact flavor, nutrition and overall consumer preferences. To understand these effects new data analysis software capable of tracking hundreds of compounds across years of samples under various environmental conditions is needed. Our recently developed mass spectral (MS) subtraction algorithms have been used with spectral deconvolution to efficiently analyze complex samples by 2-dimensional gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC-GC/MS).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe rinds of surface-ripened cheeses have expected aesthetic properties, including distinct colors, that contribute to overall quality and consumer acceptance. Atypical rind pigments are frequently reported in small-scale cheese production, but the causes of these color defects are largely unknown. We provide a potential microbial explanation for a striking purple rind defect in a surface-ripened cheese.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFClimate effects on crop quality at the molecular level are not well-understood. Gas and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry were used to measure changes of hundreds of compounds in tea at different elevations in Yunnan Province, China. Some increased in concentration while others decreased by 100's of percent.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA green chemistry solution is presented for the remediation of heavy hydrocarbon impacted soils. The two-phase recovery system relies on a plant-based biopolymer, which releases hydrocarbons from soil, and polystyrene foam beads, which recover them from solids and water. The efficiency of the process was demonstrated by comparisons with control experiments, where water, biopolymer, or beads alone yielded total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) reductions of 25%, 52%, and 58%, respectively, compared to 94% when 1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Agric Food Chem
September 2017
Plants produce volatile organic compounds (VOCs) with diverse structures and functions, which change in response to environmental stimuli and have important consequences for interactions with other organisms. To understand these changes, in situ sampling is necessary. In contrast to dynamic headspace (DHS), which is the most often employed method, direct contact sampling employing a magnetic stir bar held in place by a magnet eliminates artifacts produced by enclosing plant materials in glass or plastic chambers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlkylated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) and polycyclic aromatic sulfur heterocycle (PASH) standardized methods often rely on gas chromatography/mass spectrometry operated in the selected ion monitoring mode (GC/MS-SIM). The objective of this study is to develop a method that produces accurate data while minimizing sample preparation and achieving low levels of detection. Most standardized methods are based on acquiring a given homologue's molecular ion (1-ion).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNew database building and MS subtraction algorithms have been developed for automated, sequential two-dimensional gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC-GC/MS). This paper reports the first use of a database building tool, with full mass spectrum subtraction, that does not rely on high resolution MS data. The software was used to automatically inspect GC-GC/MS data of high elevation tea from Yunnan, China, to build a database of 350 target compounds.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSeasonal variation in tea (Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze; Theaceae) chemistry was investigated using automated sequential, multidimensional gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC-GC/MS). Metabolite libraries were produced for teas harvested from the Bulang Mountains in Yunnan, China before and after the onset of the East Asian Monsoon.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFClimate change is impacting agro-ecosystems, crops, and farmer livelihoods in communities worldwide. While it is well understood that more frequent and intense climate events in many areas are resulting in a decline in crop yields, the impact on crop quality is less acknowledged, yet it is critical for food systems that benefit both farmers and consumers through high-quality products. This study examines tea (Camellia sinensis; Theaceae), the world's most widely consumed beverage after water, as a study system to measure effects of seasonal precipitation variability on crop functional quality and associated farmer knowledge, preferences, and livelihoods.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLocal conditions influence how pollutants will weather in subsurface environments and sediment, and many of the processes that comprise environmental weathering are dependent upon these substances' physical and chemical properties. For example, the effects of dissolution, evaporation, and organic phase partitioning can be related to the aqueous solubility (SW), vapor pressure (VP), and octanol-water partition coefficient (KOW), respectively. This study outlines a novel approach for estimating these physical properties from comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC×GC/MS) retention index-based polyparameter linear free energy relationships (LFERs).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPolycyclic aromatic sulfur heterocycles (PASH) are prevalent components of fossil fuel-based pollutants, and their accurate analysis is of critical importance in risk assessment and hazardous waste site remediation. PASH, however, have a wide range of volatilities and polarities and, as such, often coelute with one another and other sample components on the non-polar gas chromatography (GC) columns commonly used in their analysis. Immobilized ionic liquid (IL)-based stationary phases have been shown to provide better separation of polar compounds than non-polar columns, while withstanding higher temperatures than typical polar columns.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA new gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) method is proffered for the analysis of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and their alkylated homologs in complex samples. Recent work elucidated the fragmentation pathways of alkylated PAH, concluding that multiple fragmentation patterns per homolog (MFPPH) are needed to correctly identify all isomers. Programming the MS in selected ion monitoring (SIM) mode to detect homolog-specific MFPPH ions delivers the selectivity and sensitivity that the conventional SIM and/or full scan mass spectrometry methods fail to provide.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFExtreme shifts in water availability linked to global climate change are impacting crops worldwide. The present study examines the direct and interactive effects of water availability and pest pressures on tea (Camellia sinensis; Theaceae) growth and functional quality. Manipulative greenhouse experiments were used to measure the effects of variable water availability and pest pressures simulated by jasmonic acid (JA) on tea leaf growth and secondary metabolites that determine tea quality.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNew mass spectral deconvolution algorithms have been developed for comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography/quadrupole mass spectrometry (GC × GC/qMS). This paper reports the first use of spectral deconvolution of full scan quadrupole GC × GC/MS data for the quantitative analysis of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and polycyclic aromatic sulfur heterocycles (PASH) in coal tar-contaminated soil. A method employing four ions per isomer and multiple fragmentation patterns per alkylated homologue (MFPPH) is used to quantify target compounds.
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