Radioactive volatile metabolite studies

Recently, a radioactive volatile metabolite M3 with a small molecular weight was studied using LC-NMR [43]. Conventional NMR was not possible because the radioactivity of the sample was lost when the fraction containing the metabolite was evaporated to dryness prior to the NMR studies. In this... 

The only identified volatile metabolite was carbon dioxide, demonstrating mineralization. Up to 47.6% of the applied radioactivity was mineralized after 100 days in laboratory soil metabolism studies. Finally, minimal dissipation has been observed in soils. 

The examples presented in this chapter demonstrate that a combination of various analytical approaches and the selection of suitable model systems can add valuable information to our knowledge about pathways and enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of chiral volatiles. Some of the techniques need further improvement, e.g. by use of radioactively labeled precursors the detection threshold of metabolites can be lowered significantly addition of precursors in concentrations comparable to those in natural plant or microbial systems would be possible. The investigation of the enantioselectivity of enzymes has to be emphasized, eventually not only enzymes commercially available or easily accessible in microorganisms but also those active in plant systems have to be studied. 

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