Samples collected in 2011 were extracted and analyzed by HPLC-ESI-MS as previously described26 (link). In brief, the extracts were analyzed by HPLC using a Beckman Coulter Gold 127 Solvent Module coupled to a Bruker Esquire 6000 ion trap mass spectrometer (Bruker Daltonik GmbH, Bremen, Germany) equipped with an electrospray ionization source. Negative ion spectra were recorded in the range 50–2000 m/z (full scan mode, 13,000 m/z per second). For metabolite identification, MS/MS and MS3 spectra were recorded in negative mode. Metabolites were putatively identified by comparing the m/z values, fragmentation patterns (MS/MS and MS3) and retention times of each signal with those of an in-house library of authentic standards. When commercial standards were not available, m/z and fragmentation patterns were compared with those published in the literature or on-line databases such as MassBank (www.massbank.jp/en/database.html) and Human Metabolome Database (http://www.hmdb.ca/).
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