Metabolic Profiling and Metabolomic Procedures for Investigating the Biodegradation of Hydrocarbons

The use of gas or liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry are underexplored, but extremely powerful, tools to address questions on the metabolic fate of hydrocarbons in systems that range in complexity from individual bacterial cells to natural or man-made environmental compartments. Such studies can be divided into targeted analysis, traditionally performed using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, and untargeted analysis, for which high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)/mass spectrometry is preferred. The general utility of the approach is predicated on the recognition that phylogenetically diverse life forms often have somewhat similar patterns for the metabolism of individual substrates. We make the distinction between metabolic profiling and metabolomics and illustrate the use of the aforementioned tools, in combination with the requisite experimental designs, laboratory procedures, and data analysis methods, to understand the fate of hydrocarbons under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions and in both freshwater and marine environments.