metabolite identification related issue

Question

[abhisekde038]

I am doing metabolomics data analysis. This figure depicts a feature file generated through spectra processing in metaboanalyst tool. My query is why only 30% of the metabolites were annotated. I provided raw metabolomics human samples for spectra processing. Is there any easier way to annotate these unknown IDs?

I have seen different m/z values hit the same HMDB ID so annotation becomes more complex. Please tell me, is there any straightforward way?

Answer 1

[Kevin Blighe]

In untargeted metabolomics from human LC-MS/MS data, a ~30% annotation rate is 'good', actually. I'd say that up to ~90% of metabolytes are unknown.

Your raw spectra processing likely highlighted low-abundance ions absent from reference libraries.

My recommendation to you would be to consult the service provider and to enquire about how they annotate / identify metabolytes from raw spectra.

After that you do that, get back to me.

Kevin