Ames Laboratory pioneers spectrometry to view lipids in cottonseed

In Iowa, the DOE’s Ames Laboratory has used spectrometry to map the lipids in cottonseed, a process which may hold the key to understanding biosynthesis and alternative energy production. The process, which allows scientists to understand the structural framework for molecules within cottonseed plant material, will create a new method for viewing plant molecules.

Said Basil Nikolau, Ames Laboratory faculty scientist, “Up until this point, this method has not really been recognized by plant scientists. But we were able to bring the technologies of analytical chemistry to the biological science problem of being able to map molecules at the single cell level. There is still a lot to learn about the process, but this technique is going to blossom very rapidly in the next few years.”

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