PR001293 (Project)

Description:Metabolomics commonly uses analytical techniques such as nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (LC-MS) to quantify and identify metabolites associated with biological variation. Metabolome coverage from non-targeted LC-MS studies relies heavily on the pre-analytical protocols (e.g., homogenization and extraction) used. Chosen protocols impact which metabolites are successfully measured, which in turn impacts biological conclusions. Different homogenization and extraction methods produce significant variability in metabolome coverage, sample reproducibility, and extraction efficiency. Herein we describe an efficient Taguchi method design of experiments (DOE) approach to optimize the extraction solvent and volume, extraction time, and LC reconstitution solvent for a sequential non-polar and polar Caenorhabditis elegans extraction. DOE is rarely used in metabolomics yet provides a systematic approach for optimizing sample preparation while simultaneously decreasing the number of experiments required to obtain high-quality data.