M/Z: 557.936

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.

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.