Phenotype differentiation of three E. coli strains by GC-FID and GC–MS based metabolomics

Two mutants of E. coli with deletion of sdhAB and ackA-pta genes respectively and their wild-type strains were subjected to gas chromatography-flame-ionization detection (GC-FID) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC–MS) metabolomics analysis. Intracellular metabolites of the three strains were profiled by GC-FID firstly. Methodological evaluation of the employed platform indicated that the limit of detection ranges were from 0.2 to 12.5 ng for some representative metabolites and the corresponding recoveries were varied from 68.7 to 122.7%. Secondly, multivariable data analysis was applied to the acquired data sets. As expected, the three phenotypes could be easily differentiated, and the perturbed metabolite pools in the genetically modified strains were screened. Lastly, the metabolites playing key roles in the differentiation were further identified by GC–MS. It was confirmed that succinic acid and aspartic acid were similarly affected in the modified strains. But proline content was altered contrarily. Additionally, deletion of sdhAB gene also affected the growth property of relevant mutant greatly. The potential mechanism was postulated accordingly.