Hello!

Can one quantify primary metabolites in microbial biomass by measuring amino acids (for quantifying proteins), free fatty acids (lipids), glucose (glycogen), ribose (RNK)? 

Thanks,
Mariia

A) measuring free amino acids does not allow you to quantify proteins. You'd have to measure proteins to do so.

B) You can measure the various metabolites (though I am not sure why you picked those particular selection of sugars), but you would need different methods. Fatty acids used to be a bit easier on GC/MS but newer columns are decent at separating those, too.

 

 

Dear CharonY,

Thanks for your response!

Could you please give me some links/explanations so I can understand why it is a wrong approach.

Do you have any specific questions that you want to address? Otherwise I would recommend you to look at text books, such as Kromidas: "The HPLC‐MS Handbook for Practitioners". Depending on your reading level you could also start with basic lectures that you can probably find online and/or wikipedia entries.