Comprehensive profiling of folates across polyglutamylation and one-carbon states.

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In one paragraph

Article in Metabolomics : Official journal of the Metabolomic Society, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

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1citing papers in PubMed

–field-weighted citation impact

1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

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2 · The registry

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Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

International journal of molecular medicine · 2026
Review

4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Sevcan ErşanDepartment of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5334-1955

Yu ChenDepartment of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0009-0001-2693-1693

Junyoung O ParkDepartment of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA. jop@ucla.edu.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9869-8993

Funding

Molecular basis linking metabolic heterogeneity, compatibility, and adaptabilityR35GM143127 · NIGMS · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES · PI Junyoung O. Park · 2021 to 2026

$2.5M

NIGMS NIH HHS R35 GM143127NIGMS NIH HHS R35GM143127

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

introductionOne-carbon metabolism is central to carbon fixation, methylation, and biosynthesis of amino acids, lipids, and nucleotides. Folates are organic cofactors that harbor one-carbon units and shunt them across these metabolic pathways. Despite its essentiality to all life forms, the diverse nature of folate species with various polyglutamylation and one-carbon states makes their measurement challenging.

objectivesWe aim to illuminate one-carbon metabolism by streamlining comprehensive profiling of folate polyglutamates.

methodsWe analyze folate standards and cellular extracts containing diverse folates species by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS).

resultsWe observe that Escherichia coli cells possess diverse folate polyglutamates with one to ten terminal glutamates. Interestingly, most folate polyglutamates form doubly charged ions as well as singly charged ions in LC-MS. Folates also undergo in-source fragmentation. The disparate fates of folates in MS make their quantitation prone to underestimation. Fragmentation by in-source collision-induced dissociation (CID) and LC separation circumvent this issue and facilitate robust and sensitive quantification of folates. In-source CID of folates generates reporter fragment ions that yield higher signals in the mass-to-charge ratio (m/z) range near the maximal mass resolution of Orbitrap MS. Our LC methods complement MS by effectively separating folates based on their polyglutamylation and one-carbon states.

conclusionOur metabolomics approach tailored to folate polyglutamates reveals multiple layers of one-carbon metabolism organized by the lengths of polyglutamate tails in folates. Our analytical workflow is broadly applicable to folate profiling across various cell types to advance our knowledge of one-carbon metabolism as well as biotechnology and medicine.

Indexed as

CarbonFolic AcidMetabolomicsPolyglutamic AcidChromatography, LiquidEscherichia coliMass SpectrometryCarbonFolic AcidPolyglutamic AcidFolateLC-MSMetabolomicsOne-carbon metabolismPolyglutamylation

Identifiers

PMID40423736

DOI10.1007/s00216-017-0514-4

PMCPMC12116830

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.