Mass spectrometry (MS)
Mass spectrometry
Japanese: 質量分析（マススペクトロメトリー）
An analytical technique that ionizes molecules and separates/identifies them by mass-to-charge ratio. A method for reading the 'molecular weight fingerprint' of substances.
Mass spectrometry ionizes molecules and separates/detects them by mass-to-charge ratio (m/z). Used in combination with various ionization methods—GC-MS, LC-MS, MALDI-TOF, and others.
In fermented food research, it can detect and identify hundreds of metabolites in miso with high sensitivity. Mass spectrometry data provides 'molecular weight fingerprints,' matching them against known compounds for identification.
Essential for protein identification in proteomics and metabolite profiling in metabolomics. The sensitivity and comprehensiveness of detecting thousands of molecular species in a single measurement has driven the explosive progress of omics research—one of the key enablers of molecular understanding of fermentation.