A Molecular Networking Approach to Identifying Metabolites in GC-MS Spectra from the Gastrointestinal Contents of Mummies of Tarapacá-40 (Northern Chile, Formative Period, 1000 BCE–600 CE)

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Eight samples from the gastrointestinal tracts of mummies exhumed at the Formative cemetery site of Tarapacá-40 (Northern Chile, Formative Period, 1000 BCE–600 CE) were solvent extracted, silylated, methylated, and injected into a gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer (GC-MS) to identify biologically relevant metabolites. The resultant .raw files of these obtained GC-MS spectra were converted to .mzML files and then ran through the Data Processing - Deconvolution and Library Search/Networking tools available through the online open-access resource Global Natural Products Social Molecular Networking (GNPS). A chemical similarity network of mummy metabolites and their derivatives was visualized and annotated in the open-source bioinformatics software Cytoscape using this automated data processing and networking output from GNPS. Clusters of steroids and fatty acids/acylglycerols as well as their derivatives (e.g., methylated) and/or degradation products (e.g., dicarboxylic acids and their methyl esters) were observed. This data was reprocessed multiple times by varying the minimum pairs cosine score parameter to examine the effect on clustering as well as node annotation. Ultimately, the networks derived from this data are now in a form where they can be processed further through Cytoscape, Python, and/or other tools in order to identify potential biomarkers of health/disease, diet, and medicinal plant use.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36582.0