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Fields & Applications Mass Spectrometry, Metabolomics & Lipidomics

Metabolons in Motion

Multiple enzymes have long been known to form complexes, called metabolons, to combine sequential processes in metabolic pathways. But they’ve never been caught in the act – until now.

A team of researchers at Pennsylvania State University has used gas cluster ion beam secondary ion MS (GCIB-SIMS) to directly visualize de novo purine biosynthesis in the purinosomes of frozen HeLa cells (1). Purines – along with pyrimidines – are the building blocks of DNA and RNA.

Not only does the research offer an exciting glimpse into the little-explored world of metabolons, it also serves as an example of how high-resolution GCIB-SIMS could be applied to other biomolecular analyses at the single-cell level.

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  1. V Pareek et al., Science, 368, 283 (2020). DOI: 10.1126/science.aaz6465
About the Author
Lauren Robertson

By the time I finished my degree in Microbiology I had come to one conclusion – I did not want to work in a lab. Instead, I decided to move to the south of Spain to teach English. After two brilliant years, I realized that I missed science, and what I really enjoyed was communicating scientific ideas – whether that be to four-year-olds or mature professionals. On returning to England I landed a role in science writing and found it combined my passions perfectly. Now at Texere, I get to hone these skills every day by writing about the latest research in an exciting, creative way.

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