Full-scan, data-dependent acquisition (DDA), and data-independent acquisition (DIA) are the three common data acquisition modes in high resolution mass spectrometry-based untargeted metabolomics. It is an important yet underrated research topic on which acquisition mode is more suitable for a given untargeted metabolomics application. In this work, we compared the three data acquisition techniques using a standard mixture of 134 endogenous metabolites and a human urine sample. Both hydrophilic interaction and reversed-phase liquid chromatographic separation along with positive and negative ionization modes were tested. Both the standard mixture and urine sample generated consistent results. Full-scan mode is able to capture the largest number of metabolic features, followed by DIA and DDA (53.7% and 64.8% respective features fewer on average in urine than full-scan). Comparing the MS2 spectra in DIA and DDA, spectra quality is higher in DDA with average dot product score 83.1% higher than DIA in Urine­(H), and the number of MS2 spectra (spectra quantity) is larger in DIA (on average 97.8% more than DDA in urine). Moreover, a comparison of relative standard deviation distribution between modes shows consistency in the quantitative precision, with the exception of DDA showing a minor disadvantage (on average 19.8% and 26.8% fewer features in urine with RSD < 5% than full-scan and DIA). In terms of data preprocessing convenience, full-scan and DDA data can be processed by well-established software. In contrast, several bioinformatic issues remain to be addressed in processing DIA data and the development of more effective computational programs is highly demanded.

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These findings underscore the virulence of human CoV-OC43 in elderly populations and confirm that cross-reactivity to antibody against nucleocapsid proteins from these viruses must be considered when interpreting serological tests for SARS-CoV.

Vitamin B1 (thiamine pyrophosphate, TPP) is essential to all life but scarce in ocean surface waters. In many bacteria and a few eukaryotic groups thiamine biosynthesis genes are controlled by metabolite-sensing mRNA-based gene regulators known as riboswitches. Using available genome sequences and transcriptomes generated from ecologically important marine phytoplankton, we identified 31 new eukaryotic riboswitches. These were found in alveolate, cryptophyte, haptophyte and rhizarian phytoplankton as well as taxa from two lineages previously known to have riboswitches (green algae and stramenopiles). The predicted secondary structures bear hallmarks of TPP-sensing riboswitches. Surprisingly, most of the identified riboswitches are affiliated with genes of unknown function, rather than characterized thiamine biosynthesis genes. Using qPCR and growth experiments involving two prasinophyte algae, we show that expression of these genes increases significantly under vitamin B1-deplete conditions relative to controls. Pathway analyses show that several algae harboring the uncharacterized genes lack one or more enzymes in the known TPP biosynthesis pathway. We demonstrate that one such alga, the major primary producer Emiliania huxleyi, grows on 4-amino-5-hydroxymethyl-2-methylpyrimidine (a thiamine precursor moiety) alone, although long thought dependent on exogenous sources of thiamine. Thus, overall, we have identified riboswitches in major eukaryotic lineages not known to undergo this form of gene regulation. In these phytoplankton groups, riboswitches are often affiliated with widespread thiamine-responsive genes with as yet uncertain roles in TPP pathways. Further, taxa with ‘incomplete' TPP biosynthesis pathways do not necessarily require exogenous vitamin B1, making vitamin control of phytoplankton blooms more complex than the current paradigm suggests.

We synthesized on cellulose membranes 4942 ten-amino-acid peptides which included all of the sequences predicted for the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) corona virus. We probed these membranes with four pairs of acute and convalescent sera from recovered SARS cases. We correlated positively reacting peptides with the in vitro SARS-CoV neutralizing activity of the samples. We found that convalescent sera with high neutralizing activity recognized exclusively only a limited number of peptides on the membranes. This suggests that antibodies against the epitopes represented by these peptides could be responsible for much of the SARS-CoV neutralizing activity. The findings have implications for monitoring humoral responses to SARS-CoV as well as for developing a successful SARS vaccine.