Screening Lysophosphatidic-acid-producing Bacillus Using HPLC and Quadrupole Time-of-flight Mass Spectrometry

Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) is an important extracellular signal transmitter and intracellular secondary messenger. Metabolites in the supernatants of liquid culture media for 34 strains of Bacillus were determined by using HPLC and quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry. It was found that the only B. subtilis strain that produced LPA was FJAT-8784. The obtained LPA showed a matching score of 96.73 according to the Metlin database. It had a molecular weight of 438.2758, and a mass to charge ratio of 439.2819. Consequently, the chemical formula for the isolated LPA was assumed to be C₂₁H₄₃O₇P. In the supernatant, the total metabolites contained approximately 1.32% LPA.