M/Z: 449.027

Mass spectrometry imaging of phospholipids in mouse urinary bladder (imzML dataset)
The spatial distribution of phospholipids in a tissue section of mouse urinary bladder was analyzed by MALDI MS imaging at 10 micrometer pixel size with high mass resolution (using an LTQ Orbitrap mass spectrometer).

R, ö, mpp A, Guenther S, Schober Y, Schulz O, Takats Z, Kummer W, Spengler B, Histology by mass spectrometry: label-free tissue characterization obtained from high-accuracy bioanalytical imaging. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl, 49(22):3834-8(2010)

Fig. S2: Single ion images of compounds shown in Fig. 1A-B : (upper left to lower right) m/z = 743.5482 (unknown), m/z = 741.5307 (SM (16:0), [M+K]+), m/z = 798.5410 (PC (34:1), [M+K]+), m/z = 616.1767 (heme b, M+), m/z = 772.5253 (PC (32:0), [M+K]+).

Stability of determined mass values was in the range of +/- 1 ppm over 22 hours of measurement (Fig. S4), with a standard deviation of 0.56 ppm. Accuracy data were obtained during tissue scanning experiments by monitoring the mass signal at nominal mass 798. The internal lock mass function of the Orbitrap instrument was used for automatic calibration during imaging measurements, using the known matrix-related ion signals at m/z = 137.0233, m/z = 444.0925 and m/z = 716.1246.

Grape berries fruit, condition: Ripe

Grape berries fruit, condition: Late

Grape berries fruit, condition: Late

Seagrasses are one of the most efficient natural sinks of carbon dioxide (CO2) on Earth. Despite covering less than 0.1% of coastal regions, they have the capacity to bury up to 10% of marine organic matter and can bury the same amount of carbon 35 times faster than tropical rainforests. On land, the soil’s ability to sequestrate carbon is intimately linked to microbial metabolism. Despite the growing attention to the link between plant production, microbial communities, and the carbon cycle in terrestrial ecosystems, these processes remain enigmatic in the sea. Here, we show that seagrasses excrete organic sugars, namely in the form of sucrose, into their rhizospheres. Surprisingly, the microbial communities living underneath meadows do not fully use this sugar stock in their metabolism. Instead, sucrose piles up in the sediments to mM concentrations underneath multiple types of seagrass meadows. Sediment incubation experiments show that microbial communities living underneath a meadow use sucrose at low metabolic rates. Our metagenomic analyses revealed that the distinct community of microorganisms occurring underneath meadows is limited in their ability to degrade simple sugars, which allows these compounds to persist in the environment over relatively long periods of time. Our findings reveal how seagrasses form blue carbon stocks despite the relatively small area they occupy. Unfortunately, anthropogenic disturbances are threatening the long-term persistence of seagrass meadows. Given that these sediments contain a large stock of sugars that heterotopic bacteria can degrade, it is even more important to protect these ecosystems from degradation.

Seagrasses are among the most efficient sinks of carbon dioxide on Earth. While carbon sequestration in terrestrial plants is linked to the microorganisms living in their soils, the interactions of seagrasses with their rhizospheres are poorly understood. Here, we show that the seagrass, Posidonia oceanica excretes sugars, mainly sucrose, into its rhizosphere. These sugars accumulate to µM concentrations—nearly 80 times higher than previously observed in marine environments. This finding is unexpected as sugars are readily consumed by microorganisms. Our experiments indicated that under low oxygen conditions, phenolic compounds from P. oceanica inhibited microbial consumption of sucrose. Analyses of the rhizosphere community revealed that many microbes had the genes for degrading sucrose but these were only expressed by a few taxa that also expressed genes for degrading phenolics. Given that we observed high sucrose concentrations underneath three other species of marine plants, we predict that the presence of plant-produced phenolics under low oxygen conditions allows the accumulation of labile molecules across aquatic rhizospheres.