Potential energetic return on investment positively correlated with overall soil microbial activity

Microbial communities are a critical component of the soil carbon (C) cycle as they are responsible for the decomposition of both organic inputs from plants and of soil organic C. However, there is still no consensus about how to explicitly represent their role in terrestrial C cycling. The objective of the study was to determine how the molecular and energetic properties of readily available organic matter affect the metabolic activity of the resident microbial communities in soils. This was achieved by cross-amending six soils, taken from woodland and grassland sites along an urban pressure gradient, with organic matter extracted from the same six soils and measuring heat dissipated due to the increase in microbial metabolic activity. The energetic properties of the organic matter were used to estimate a potential energetic return on investment (ROI) that microbial communities could obtain from the transformation of the organic matter. Specifically, the ROI was calculated as the ratio between the total net energy available (ΔE) and the weighted average standard state Gibbs energies of oxidation half reactions of organic C (ΔG°Cox). ΔE was measured as the heat of combustion using bomb calorimetry. ΔG°Cox was estimated using the average nominal oxidation state of C (NOSC) of the molecular species in the organic matter. The overall metabolic activity of microbial communities was positively related to the potential energetic return on investment but no significant relationship was found with the molecular diversity of organic matter. The temporal differences in metabolism across soils indicate that bacterial communities do not exploit the potential energetic return on investment in the same way: the suburban grassland communities responded more rapidly and the suburban woodland communities more slowly to the organic matter additions than the other communities. The urban gradient did not affect the properties of the molecular or energetic properties of the organic matter nor the response of the microbial communities to the organic matter additions. However, the organic matter from the grassland soils caused soils to dissipate 36.4% more heat than organic matter from the woodland soils. The metabolic response was also more rapid after the addition of grassland organic matter: the time taken for half the heat to be dissipated was 6.4 h after the addition of grassland organic matter and 6.1 h after the addition of woodland organic matter. Overall, our results suggest that microbial communities preferentially use organic matter with a high potential energetic return on investment, i.e. organic molecules that do not require high cost associated with catalysis whilst yielding a high net energetic benefit

Dynamic Control of the Self-Assembling Properties of Cyclodextrins by the Interplay of Aromatic and Host-Guest Interactions

The presence of a doubly-linked naphthylene clip at the O-2I and O-3II positions in the secondary ring of β-cyclodextrin (βCD) derivatives promoted their self-assembly into head-to-head supramolecular dimers in which the aromatic modules act either as cavity extension walls (if the naphthalene moiety is 1,8-disubstituted) or as folding screens that separate the individual βCD units (if 2,3-disubstituted). Dimer architecture is governed by the conformational properties of the monomer constituents, as determined by NMR, fluorescence, circular dichroism, and computational techniques. In a second supramolecular organization level, the topology of the assembly directs host-guest interactions and, reciprocally, guest inclusion impacts the stability of the supramolecular edifice. Thus, inclusion of adamantane carboxylate, a well-known βCD cavity-fitting guest, was found to either preserve the dimeric arrangement, leading to multicomponent species, or elicit dimer disruption. The ensemble of results highlights the potential of the approach to program self-organization and external stimuli responsiveness of CD devices in a controlled manner while keeping full diastereomeric purity.Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad CTQ2015-64425-C2-1-R, CTQ2016-80600-P and SAF2016- 76083-RJunta de Andalucía contract number FQM2012-1467UAH CCGP2017-EXP/02

Trifaceted Mickey Mouse Amphiphiles for Programmable Self-Assembly, DNA Complexation and Organ-Selective Gene Delivery

Instilling segregated cationic and lipophilic domains with an angular disposition in a trehalose-based trifaceted macrocyclic scaffold allows engineering patchy molecular nanoparticles leveraging directional interactions that emulate those controlling self-assembling processes in viral capsids. The resulting trilobular amphiphilic derivatives, featuring a Mickey Mouse architecture, can electrostatically interact with plasmid DNA (pDNA) and further engage in hydrophobic contacts to promote condensation into transfectious nanocomplexes. Notably, the topology and internal structure of the cyclooligosaccharide/pDNA co-assemblies can be molded by fine-tuning the valency and characteristics of the cationic and lipophilic patches, which strongly impacts the transfection efficacy in vitro and in vivo. Outstanding organ selectivities can then be programmed with no need of incorporating a biorecognizable motif in the formulation. The results provide a versatile strategy for the construction of fully synthetic and perfectly monodisperse nonviral gene delivery systems uniquely suited for optimization schemes by making cyclooligosaccharide patchiness the focus.Peer reviewe

Development of new methods for the analysis of bioactive anionic oligosaccharides by mass spectrometry

Les interactions non-Covalentes entre des protéines et des polysaccharides anioniques tels que les glycosaminoglycanes (GAGs) interviennent dans de nombreux processus physio-Pathologiques tels que la signalisation, la reconnaissance cellulaire, les infections bactériennes et virales ou lors de la progression des cancers. Une des difficultés pour comprendre les mécanismes moléculaires mis en jeu lors de ces interactions réside dans le déchiffrage des informations structurales contenues dans les GAGs. Cette tâche est délicate, surtout en raison du degré variable d'acétylations et de sulfatations de ces GAG's, constituant des limitations importantes pour l'avancée des recherches en glycobiologie. Pour contourner ces restrictions, des méthodes analytiques fines et innovantes, telles que la spectrométrie de masse (MS) offrent de nombreux avantages. Durant cette thèse, trois approches originales basées sur la MS ont été developpées. La première a consisté à synthétiser de nouvelles matrices ioniques liquides limitant la désulfatation et favorisant l'obtention de dépôt homogène pour l'analyse par UV-MALDI-TOF. La seconde a montré le potentiel d'une méthode d'ionisation douce récemment introduite, la désorption ionisation assistée par électronébulisation (DESI) permettant l'analyse directe et en conditions ambiantes d'oligosaccharides anioniques seuls ou sous forme de complexes avec une protéine. Enfin, la troisième a nécessité la fabrication de puces à protéines ou à saccharides pour lanalyse de complexes protéines/GAG en utilisant le couplage de la résonance plasmonique de surface avec la MS (SPR-MS). Ce couplage permet d'effectuer le suivi en temps réel de la formation de complexes entre des protéines et des GAGs, d'en déterminer les constantes de la dissociation, puis de détecter directement par UV-MALDI-TOF les ligands, qu'ils soient de nature protéique ou saccharidique.The non-Covalent interactions between proteins and anionic polysaccharides such as glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) are involved in several physio-Pathological processes such as cell signalling and recognition, bacterial and viral infections or during cancer progression. One of the obstacles to get the molecular mechanisms involved during these interactions hold in the structural information deciphering within GAG's sequences. This task is delicate especially because of variable level of acetylations and sulfations, constituting important bottleneck in the research advances of the glycobiology field. To bypass these restrictions, accurate and innovative analytical methods such as mass spectrometry (MS) provide numerous advantages. During this Ph.D training, three original MS based approaches have been developed. The first dealt with the synthesis of new ionic liquid matrices, which both restrict desulfation process and favour the homogeneous deposits for UV-MALDI-TOF analysis. The second way used a soft recently introduced ionization method, desorption electrospray ionization (DESI) allowing direct analysis in ambient conditions of anionic oligosaccharides or under complexes with protein. Finally, the third involved the making of protein or saccharide chips for the analysis of protein / GAG complexes using the hyphenation of surpface plasmon resonance with MS (SPR-MS). Thos coupling allows real time monitoring protein / GAG complexes formation, their dissociation constant determination and the direct detection of protéic as wall as saccharidic ligands by UV-MALDI-TOF

Discrimination of isomeric trisaccharides and their relative quantification in honeys using trapped ion mobility spectrometry

International audienceCarbohydrates play a myriad of critical roles as key intermediaries for energy storage, cell wall constituents, or also fuel for organisms. The deciphering of multiple structural isomers based on the monosaccharides composition (stereoisomers), the type of glycosidic linkages (connectivity) and the anomeric configuration (α and β), remains a major analytical challenging task. The possibility to discriminate 13 underivatized isomeric trisaccharides were reported using electrospray ionization coupled to trapped ion mobility spectrometry (ESI-TIMS). After optimization of scan ratio enhancing both the mobility resolving power (R) and resolution (r), fingerprints from 5 different honeys were obtained. Seven trisaccharides with relative content varying from 1.5 to 58.3%, were identified. It was demonstrated that their relative content and/or their ratio could be used to ascertain origin of the honeys. Moreover, such direct approach constitutes an alternative tool to current longer chromatographic runs, paving the way to a transfer as suitable routine analysis

Discrimination of cyclic and linear oligosaccharides by tandem mass spectrometry using collision-induced dissociation (CID), pulsed-Q-dissociation (PQD) and the higher-energy C-trap dissociation modes: Study of cyclic and linear oligosaccharides by MS/MS

International audienceRATIONALE: Carbohydrates have essential functions in living organisms and cells, but, due to the presence of numerous linkage combinations, substituent sites and possible conformations, they are the class of biomolecules which exhibits the huge structural diversity found in nature. Thereby, due to such diversity and poor ionization, their structural deciphering by mass spectrometry is still a very challenging task. METHODS: Here, we studied a series of linear and cyclic neutral oligosaccharides using electrospray with collisioninduced dissociation (CID), pulsedQdissociation (PQD) and the higherenergy Ctrap dissociation (HCD) feature of a linear ion trap Orbitrap hybrid mass spectrometer (LTQOrbitrap). The collision energy necessary to obtain 50% fragmentation (CE50 values) in CID, PQD and HCD was used to correlate both size and structures. RESULTS: The default settings for activation time and/or activation Q are the most appropriate, except for HCD, where 100 ms instead of 30 ms gave more intense fragment ions. PQD exhibits a 2-8-fold lower sensitivity than CID. HCD provides signals closer or slightly superior by 1.5-fold than PQD, and offers a more balanced ion distribution through the spectrum. Furthermore, HCD offers the possibility to make fine adjustments of the energy via the eV scale to further increase the yield of lowmass fragments. CONCLUSIONS: The complementarity of CID, PQD and HCD was clearly demonstrated by obtaining structural information on hexa, hepta and octasaccharides. Together, these results clearly indicate the usefulness of the CID/HCD pair for further structural deciphering, and analysis of more complex structures such as multiantennary carbohydrates or glycoconjuguates alone or in mixture

Probing the common alkali metal affinity of native and variously methylated β-cyclodextrins by combining electrospray-tandem mass spectrometry and molecular modeling

International audienceIn the study herein, we investigated the solution and gas phase affinity of native and variously methylated β-cyclodextrins (CDs) as hosts towards three common alkali metals as guests namely lithium, sodium and potassium. For this purpose, two complementary approaches have been employed: electrospray-tandem mass spectrometry (ESI-MS/MS) with two energetic regimes: Collision Induced Dissociation (CID) and Higher Collision Dissociation (HCD), respectively, and DFT molecular modeling. These approaches have been achieved by taking into account the interaction of either one or two alkali metals with the host molecules. The results showed a good agreement between experimental and theoretical data. It was demonstrated that increasing the methylation degree strengthened the gas phase affinity towards all studied alkali metals. Furthermore, it was established that the cation selectivity was Na+ > Li+ > K+ and Li+ > Na+ > K+ for the solution and gas phase, respectively

A microscale double labelling of GAG oligosaccharides compatible with enzymatic treatment and mass spectrometry

International audienceA novel double labelling of glycosaminoglycans (GAG) oligosaccharides by thia-Michael addition and deuterium incorporation at the non-reducing and reducing ends, respectively, was introduced. This was demonstrated to be both compatible with the heparin microgram scale and amenable for mass spectrometry analysis, without impairing enzymatic activities such as heparinase I and sulfatase HSulf-2

Critical parameters for the analysis of anionic oligosaccharides by desorption electrospray ionization mass spectrometry

International audienceSulfated oligosaccharides derived from glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) are fragile compounds, highly polar and anionic. We report here on the rare but successful application of desorption electrospray ionization (DESI) — LTQ‐Orbitrap mass spectrometry (MS) to the high‐resolution analysis of anionic and sulfated oligosaccharides derived from the GAGs hyaluronic acid and heparin. For that purpose, key parameters affecting DESI performance, comprising the geometric parameters of the DESI source, the probed surface and the spraying conditions, applied spray voltage, flow rates and solvent composition were investigated. Under suitable conditions, the DESI technique allows the preservation of the structural integrity of such fragile compounds. DESI enabled the sensitive detection of anionic hyaluronic acid and heparin oligosaccharides with a limit of detection (LOD) down to 5 fmol (≈10 pg) for the hyaluronic acid decasaccharide. Detection of hyaluronic acid oligosaccharides in urine sample was also successfully achieved with LOD values inferior to the ng range. Multistage tandem mass spectrometry (MSn) through the combination of the DESI source with a hybrid linear ion trap‐orbitrap mass spectrometer allowed the discrimination of isomeric sulfated oligosaccharides and the sequence determination of a hyaluronic acid decasaccharide. These results open promising ways in glycomic and glycobiology fields where structure–activity relationships of bioactive carbohydrates are currently questioned

Ion mobility mass spectrometry enables the discrimination of positional isomers and the detection of conformers from cyclic oligosaccharides-metals supramolecular complexes

Cyclic oligosaccharides are well known to interact with various metals, able to form supramolecular complexes with distinct sizes and shapes. However, the presence of various isomers in a sample, including positional isomers and conformers, can significantly impact molecular recognition, encapsulation ability and chemical reactivity. Therefore, it is crucial to have tools for deep samples probing and correlation establishments. The emerging ion mobility mass spectrometry (IM-MS) has the advantages to be rapid and sensitive, but is still in its infancy for the investigation of supramolecular assemblies. In the herein study, it was demonstrated that IM-MS is suitable to discriminate several isomers of cyclodextrins (CD)-metals complexes, used as cyclic oligosaccharide models. In this sense, we investigated branched 6-O-α-glucosyl- or 6-O-α-maltosyl-β-cyclodextrins (G1-β-CD and G2-β-CD) and their purely cyclic isomers: CD8 (γ-CD) and CD9 (δ-CD). The corresponding collision cross section (CCS) values were deducted for the main positive singly and doubly charged species. Experimental CCS values were matched with models obtained from molecular modelling. The high mobility resolving power and resolution enabled discrimination of positional isomers, identification of various conformers and accurate relative content estimation. These results represent a milestone in the identification of carbohydrate conformers that cannot be easily reached by other approaches