EAGER: Metabolomics Analysis of Archival Marine Invertebrates

Non-technical project description

Museums of natural history, such as the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) in Washington, D.C., are repositories for, among other things, biological specimens. Specimens stored at the NMNH were obtained over many decades and across the globe, resulting in what is currently a treasure trove of biological and chemical information. Chemical compounds (metabolites) found in the tissues of, for example, marine invertebrates, can record the organism’s response to a changing environment.

This project seeks to establish a strategy for analyzing these compounds in Antarctic marine invertebrates held in the NMNH. These organisms are especially valuable for studies of their metabolites as such information will contribute to our understanding of the history of the polar environment and how organisms are able to adapt to extreme habitats.

Further, studies of these rare and difficult to obtain metabolites have broad impacts in biotechnology and human health. Technical description of the project

This project seeks to develop a workflow for the analysis of metabolites in archival marine invertebrate specimens held in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (NMNH). Recent advances in mass spectrometry (MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, both instrumental as well as analysis platforms, enable the detection and annotation of chemical structures in these otherwise difficult to obtain metabolites.

In particular, NMR strategy (Pure Shift NMR) will be implemented to increase sensitivity toward these sample-limited analytes. Further, the workflow will be applied in an analysis of storage methods used by the NMNH with the aim of understanding how best to preserve specimens for future metabolomics analyses. With an optimized workflow established, additional applications to inform our understanding of adaptation and (cryptic) speciation in the extreme habitats found in Antarctica are possible.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.