- Aron, Allegra T;
- Petras, Daniel;
- Schmid, Robin;
- Gauglitz, Julia M;
- Büttel, Isabell;
- Antelo, Luis;
- Zhi, Hui;
- Nuccio, Sean-Paul;
- Saak, Christina C;
- Malarney, Kien P;
- Thines, Eckhard;
- Dutton, Rachel J;
- Aluwihare, Lihini I;
- Raffatellu, Manuela;
- Dorrestein, Pieter C
Although metals are essential for the molecular machineries of life, systematic methods for discovering metal-small molecule complexes from biological samples are limited. Here, we describe a two-step native electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry method, in which post-column pH adjustment and metal infusion are combined with ion identity molecular networking, a rule-based data analysis workflow. This method enabled the identification of metal-binding compounds in complex samples based on defined mass (m/z) offsets of ion species with the same chromatographic profiles. As this native electrospray metabolomics approach is suited to the use of any liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry system to explore the binding of any metal, this method has the potential to become an essential strategy for elucidating metal-binding molecules in biology.