Mass Spectrometry Imaging of Mating Tetrahymena thermophila Reveals That Cell Morphology Changes Precede Lipid Domain Formation

摘要

I. ToF-SIMS can map lipid distributions with sub-cellular spatial resolution, without chemical labels. II. Utilization of cryogenic sample preparation techniques allows for the examination of dynamic processes. III. Formation of lipid domains correlates with the formation of "strongly paired" cell pairs. IV. These results suggest that the measured lipid heterogeneity is the result of forming highly curved membrane structures. V. Improvements in ionization efficiency afforded by cluster ion projectiles will allow the mapping of additional interesting lipid species.