Exploring the Fundamental Structures of Life: Non‐Targeted, Chemical Analysis of Single Cells and Subcellular Structures

Cells are a basic functional and structural unit of living organisms. Both unicellular communities and multicellular species produce an astonishing chemical diversity, enabling a wide range of divergent functions, yet each cell shares numerous aspects that are common to all living organisms. While t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Angewandte Chemie International Edition 2019-07, Vol.58 (28), p.9348-9364
Main Authors: Neumann, Elizabeth K., Do, Thanh D., Comi, Troy J., Sweedler, Jonathan V.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
analytical methods
bioanalysis
Biodiversity
Chemical analysis
imaging
mass spectrometry
Organic chemistry
single-cell analysis
Species diversity
Structure-function relationships
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Summary:Cells are a basic functional and structural unit of living organisms. Both unicellular communities and multicellular species produce an astonishing chemical diversity, enabling a wide range of divergent functions, yet each cell shares numerous aspects that are common to all living organisms. While there are many approaches for studying this chemical diversity, only a few are non‐targeted and capable of analyzing hundreds of different chemicals at cellular resolution. Here, we review the non‐targeted approaches used to perform comprehensive chemical analyses, provide chemical imaging information, or obtain high‐throughput single‐cell profiling data. Single‐cell measurement capabilities are rapidly increasing in terms of throughput, limits of detection, and completeness of the chemical analyses; these improvements enable their application to understand ever more complex physiological phenomena, such as learning, memory, and behavior. Single‐cell analysis: Cellular chemical heterogeneity enables divergent functions within unicellular communities and multicellular organisms. This review covers non‐targeted techniques capable of identifying hundreds of chemicals at cellular resolution to begin understanding complex physiological phenomena. We end with instrumentation improvements and multimodal approaches that enhance the chemical coverage of a single cell.
ISSN:1433-7851
1521-3773
DOI:10.1002/anie.201811951