Untargeted metabolomics pilot study using UHPLC-Q-Orbitrap to investigate potential metabolic markers of Brucella abortus biovars

Abstract

Brucellosis, a zoonosis caused by Brucella spp., remains a significant public health concern. In this pilot study, untargeted metabolomics using UHPLC-Q-Orbitrap was applied to investigate intracellular metabolic profiles of six Brucella abortus biovars. Intracellular metabolites were extracted from each biovar with acetonitrile:isopropanol:water solution and analyzed in full scan mode at 70 000 FWHM mass resolution. Unsupervised multivariate analyses (PCA and HCA) revealed distinct metabolic patterns among the biovars, with biovar 3 showing the most pronounced separation. Two discriminant metabolites, indole and a glycerophospholipid, were putatively annotated, while several other differentially abundant ions were also identified and made available to support future studies. These findings highlight the potential of metabolomics to distinguish closely related bacterial groups and open new avenues for exploring metabolic pathways linked to phenotypic variation and virulence in Brucella abortus.