Automated monitoring of phosphatidylcholine biosyntheses in Plasmodium falciparum by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry, through stable isotope labeling experiments

The metabolic pathways contributing to phosphatidylcholine biosyntheses in Plasmodium falciparum, the malaria-causing parasite, was explored by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. Phosphatidylcholine produced by the CDP-choline pathway and by the methylation of phosphatidylethanolamine was identified and quantified through isotopic labeling experiments. A straightforward method based on cone voltage directed in-source fragmentations and relative abundance measurement of endogenous versus deuterated specific fragment ions was developed for simple and rapid automated data acquisition. Such high-throughput analytical protocol allowed us to measure the relative contribution of two different metabolic pathways leading to phosphatidylcholine without performing technically more demanding and time-consuming MS/MS or LC/MS experiments.