Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 11, 2025
11:13
Mass Spectrometry-Guided Genome Mining as a Tool to Uncover Novel Natural Products
Published on: March 12, 2020
11.1K
MetEx, a Metabolomics Explorer Application for Natural Product Discovery
Brett C Covington1, Mohammad R Seyedsayamdost1,2
1Department of Chemistry, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, United States.
ACS Chemical Biology
|December 3, 2021
Summary
Metabolomics Explorer (MetEx) is a new web application for analyzing complex natural product data from microbial metabolomes. This tool aids in discovering new compounds by visualizing and prioritizing multidimensional datasets from liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry.
Area of Science:
- Natural product discovery
- Metabolomics
- Bioinformatics
Background:
- Advances in sequencing and mass spectrometry enable new natural product discovery.
- Microbial metabolomes are complex, requiring advanced data analysis tools.
- Silent biosynthetic genes pose challenges in natural product identification.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a web application for analyzing multidimensional metabolomics data.
- To facilitate the exploration and mapping of complex microbial secondary metabolomes.
- To aid in the discovery of novel natural products.
Main Methods:
- Development of the Metabolomics Explorer (MetEx) web application.
- Utilizing parallel liquid chromatography-coupled mass spectrometry (LC-MS) for data acquisition.
- Application of MetEx to analyze UPLC-MS data from a high-throughput elicitor screen of *Burkholderia gladioli*.
Main Results:
- MetEx enables interactive visualization and analysis of complex LC-MS metabolomics data.
- The software facilitates prioritization of natural product leads and dereplication.
- Application to *B. gladioli* identified elicitors for cryptic metabolites and new natural products.
Conclusions:
- MetEx is a valuable tool for exploring complex metabolomics datasets and accelerating natural product discovery.
- The application demonstrated utility in identifying novel compounds and understanding microbial chemical defenses.
- MetEx provides a platform for high-throughput screening and analysis of microbial natural products.
