{
  "id": 9480041,
  "title": "Comprehensive analysis of ammonia and biogenic amines in ecologically diverse systems with high-resolution mass spectrometry",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/23/comprehensive-analysis-of-ammonia-and-biogenic-amines-in-ecologically",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-09-23T00:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "bioRxiv",
    "slug": "biorxiv",
    "url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.22.753493v1?rss=1"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Nitrogen is an essential element for the growth of all multicellular organisms and microbial ecosystems, but obtaining sufficient nitrogen and disposing of toxic nitrogen-containing byproducts pose significant metabolic challenges. Accurately quantifying the vast range of biological amines and nitrogen-containing compounds in biological samples has historically been difficult due to assays lacking specificity, selectivity, breadth, and sensitivity.\n\nA new method has now been developed, combining liquid chromatography with high-resolution mass spectrometry, and includes an analysis pipeline. This technique can accurately quantify over 30 nitrogen-containing compounds, including ammonia, with high precision.\n\nThe researchers demonstrated the effectiveness of their method by applying it to various complex samples, such as mouse and human gut contents, bacterial cultures, algal symbiosis in a cnidarian, and freshwater ecosystem samples. The method proved particularly useful in investigating the impact of gut microbiome composition on nitrogen distribution in the cecum of mice with different gnotobiotic microbiomes. Their findings revealed a significant influence of gut microbiota on amino acid, ammonia, and amine concentrations in the upper large intestine.\n\nThis comprehensive approach provides a powerful tool for microbial ecology research, allowing scientists to gain new insights into nitrogen assimilation, exchange, and disposal processes across various biological systems.",
  "summary": "The acquisition of sufficient nitrogen for growth, as well as the disposal of highly toxic nitrogen-containing degradation products, represent serious metabolic challenges in all multicellular organisms and microbial ecosystems. Understanding these processes requires a broadly applicable system to accurately quantify the concentration of a wide spectrum of biological amines and inorganic…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}