Fig. 1.

Schematic of sample preparation and spectrum acquisition for MALDI-MS analysis of a single embryo or oocyte. (A) Individual samples are removed from the culture dish, washed, transferred to a spot on a MALDI target plate, dried and moistened with the matrix solution. (B) The laser is focused on the single unit and the MALDI-MS data is collected. MALDI plates typically allow for the simultaneous loading of either 96 or 384 samples in individual spots, and full spectra acquisition requires a few milliseconds of spectra accumulation.