The Effect of Freeze/Thaw Cycles on Reproducibility of Metabolic Profiling of Marine Microalgal Extracts Using Direct Infusion High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry (HR-MS)

During normal sample preparation, storage in freezers and subsequent freeze/thaw cycles are commonly introduced. The effect of freeze/thaw cycles on the metabolic profiling of microalgal extracts using HR-MS was investigated. Methanolic extracts of monocultures of Arctic marine diatoms were analyzed...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Molecules
Main Authors: Hans Chr. Eilertsen, Siv Huseby, Maria Degerlund, Gunilla K. Eriksen, Richard A. Ingebrigtsen, Espen Hansen
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2014
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Online Access:https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules191016373
https://doaj.org/article/68143573f7094088a641f4e71bc73b48
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Summary:During normal sample preparation, storage in freezers and subsequent freeze/thaw cycles are commonly introduced. The effect of freeze/thaw cycles on the metabolic profiling of microalgal extracts using HR-MS was investigated. Methanolic extracts of monocultures of Arctic marine diatoms were analyzed immediately after extraction, after seven days of storage at −78 °C (one freeze/thaw cycle), and after additional seven days at −20 °C (two freeze/thaw cycles). Repeated direct infusion high-resolution mass spectrometry analysis of microalgae extracts of the same sample showed that reproducibility was ca. 90% when a fresh (unfrozen) sample was analyzed. The overall reproducibility decreased further by ca. 10% after the first freeze/thaw-cycle, and after one more freeze/thaw cycle the reproducibility decreased further by ca. 7%. The decrease in reproducibility after freeze-thaw cycles could be attributed to sample degradation and not to instrument variability.