Extraction, purification, methylation and GC-MS analysis of short-chain carboxylic acids for metabolic flux analysis.

Dynamic metabolic flux analysis requires efficient and effective methods for extraction, purification and analysis of a plethora of naturally-occurring compounds. One area of metabolism that would be highly informative to study using metabolic flux analysis is the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle, which consists of short-chain carboxylic acids. Here, we describe a newly-developed method for extraction, purification, derivatization and analysis of short-chain carboxylic acids involved in the TCA cycle.