Metabolic characterisation ofMagnetospirillum gryphiswaldenseMSR-1 using LC-MS-based metabolite profiling

Magnetosomes are nano-sized magnetic nanoparticles with exquisite properties that can be used in a wide range of healthcare and biotechnological applications. They are biosynthesised by magnetotactic bacteria (MTB), such asMagnetospirillum gryphiswaldenseMSR-1 (Mgryph). However, magnetosome bioprocessing yields low quantities compared to chemical synthesis of magnetic nanoparticles. Therefore, an understanding of the intracellular metabolites and metabolic networks related toMgryphgrowth and magnetosome formation are vital to unlock the potential of this organism to develop improved bioprocesses. In this work, we investigated the metabolism ofMgryphusing untargeted metabolomics. Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) was performed to profile spent medium samples ofMgryphcells grown under O-2-limited (n= 6) and O-2-rich conditions (n= 6) corresponding to magnetosome- and non-magnetosome producing cells, respectively. Multivariate, univariate and pathway enrichment analyses were conducted to identify significantly altered metabolites and pathways. Rigorous metabolite identification was carried out using authentic standards, theMgryph-specific metabolite database and MS/MS mzCloud database. PCA and OPLS-DA showed clear separation and clustering of sample groups with cross-validation values of (RX)-X-2 = 0.76, (RY)-Y-2 = 0.99 and Q(2)= 0.98 in OPLS-DA. As a result, 50 metabolites linked to 45 metabolic pathways were found to be significantly altered in the tested conditions, including: glycine, serine and threonine; butanoate; alanine, aspartate and glutamate metabolism; aminoacyl-tRNA biosynthesis and; pyruvate and citric acid cycle (TCA) metabolisms. Our findings demonstrate the potential of LC-MS to characterise key metabolites inMgryphand will contribute to further understanding the metabolic mechanisms that affectMgryphgrowth and magnetosome formation.