Simultaneous analysis of 7 key mevalonate pathway intermediates using liquid chromatography-orbitrap mass...

The mevalonate (MVA) pathway is a central metabolic route that converts mevalonate into isoprenoids, which are of crucial significance in various cellular processes. As no systematic approach had been developed and validated for the simultaneous estimation of these intermediate metabolites within the MVA pathway. In this research, a method was developed for the concurrent determination of 7 key intermediate metabolites in the MVA pathway based on ultra-high performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) coupled with a quadrupole/electrostatic field orbitrap high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS). The developed UPLC-HRMS method based on the hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) separation mode was successfully applied to the quantitative analysis of relevant key intermediate metabolites in wild type Escherichia coli (E. coli) BL21 (DE3) and the recombinant E. coli BL21 (DE3) system constructed by introducing all the genes of the MVA pathway into the strain. The above results can offer a reference for further studies on the MVA pathway.