ToF-SIMS spectrometry to observe fatty acid profiles of breast tissues in broiler chicken subjected to varied vegetable oil diet

Advancements in ToF-SIMS imaging for life sciences

In the last 2 decades, Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) has gained significant prominence as a powerful imaging technique in the field of life sciences. This comprehensive review provides an in-depth overview of recent advancements in ToF-SIMS instrument technology and its applications in metabolomics, lipidomics, and single-cell analysis. We highlight the use of ToF-SIMS imaging for studying lipid distribution, composition, and interactions in cells and tissues, and discuss its application in metabolomics, including the analysis of metabolic pathways. Furthermore, we review recent progress in single-cell analysis using ToF-SIMS, focusing on sample preparation techniques, in situ investigation for subcellular distribution of drugs, and interactions between drug molecules and biological targets. The high spatial resolution and potential for multimodal analysis of ToF-SIMS make it a promising tool for unraveling the complex molecular landscape of biological systems. We also discuss future prospects and potential advancements of ToF-SIMS in the research of life sciences, with the expectation of a significant impact in the field.

Correlations between first order echotextural characteristics and chemical composition of pectoralis major muscles in broiler chickens receiving different dietary fat supplements

This study examined the quantitative relationships among ultrasonographic image attributes and chemical composition of the pectoralis major muscles in broiler chickens that received four different dietary fat supplements (Group SO: soybean oil; Group FO: flaxseed oil; Group SO+FO: soybean oil+flaxseed oil; and Group BT: beef tallow; n=10 birds/group). Ultrasonograms of birds’ pectoral muscles, in a transverse (T) and longitudinal (L) plane, were obtained just before slaughter at 6 weeks of age and were subjected to digital image analyses to determine mean pixel intensity (MPI) and pixel heterogeneity values (standard deviation of numerical pixel values; MPH; a.k.a first order echotextural characteristics). Thirty-eight chemical characteristics of the muscles were determined post-mortem (crude fat, protein, and dry matter as well as fatty acid profiles) and were analyzed for correlations with the echotextural variables. A total of 12 (L-MPI: 7; L-MPH: 4; and T-MPH: 1 correlation), 5 (L-MPI: 2; L-MPH: 2; and T-MPI: 1 correlation), 15 (L-MPI: 10; T-MPI: 4; and T-MPH: 1 correlation) and 8 (L-MPI: 2; L-MPH: 1; and TMPH: 5 correlations) significant correlations were recorded in Groups SO, FO, SO+FO and BT, respectively. When the data were pooled for all 40 birds studied, significant correlations with echotextural attributes were recorded for eighteen different chemical constituents, with the strongest overall correlation found between crude fat content and T-MPI (r=0.52, P=0.0005). In conclusion, there exists a potential application for ultrasonographic imaging in situ combined with computerized image analysis to estimate certain chemical constituents of pectoralis major muscles in broiler chickens. However, the existence and strength of correlations among ultrasonographic image attributes and muscle composition are affected by the source of dietary fat and relative abundance (“threshold concentrations”) of individual chemical components.

Analytical Methodologies for Agrometallomics: A Critical Review

Agrometallomics, as an independent interdiscipline, is first defined and described in this review. Metallic elements widely exist in agricultural plants, animals and edible fungi, seed, fertilizer, pesticide, feedstuff, as well as the agricultural environment and ecology, and even functional and pathogenic microorganisms. So, the agrometallome plays a vital role in molecular and organismic mechanisms like environmetallomics, metabolomics, proteomics, lipidomics, glycomics, immunomics, genomics, etc. To further reveal the inner and mutual mechanism of the agrometallome, comprehensive and systematic methodologies for the analysis of beneficial and toxic metals are indispensable to investigate elemental existence, concentration, distribution, speciation, and forms in agricultural lives and media. Based on agrometallomics, this review summarizes and discusses the advanced technical progress and future perspectives of metallic analytical approaches, which are categorized into ultrasensitive and high-throughput analysis, elemental speciation and state analysis, and spatial- and microanalysis. Furthermore, the progress of agrometallomic innovativeness greatly depends on the innovative development of modern metallic analysis approaches including, but not limited to, high sensitivity, elemental coverage, and anti-interference; high-resolution isotopic analysis; solid sampling and nondestructive analysis; metal chemical species and metal forms, associated molecular clusters, and macromolecular complexes analysis; and metal-related particles or metal within the microsize and even single cell or subcellular analysis.