Marine organisms, such as soft corals (the order Alcynacea), can produce different types of natural products. These natural products with abundant chemical diversity are a great treasure in natural product research. However, it seems not to find all the same types of compounds from the same species that were from different collection spots. Is it a chromatographic bias of researchers or the epigenetic changes of the marine species? Recently, the principles of analysis techniques have advanced rapidly. Among them, MALDI mass spectrometry image (IMS) combines the advantages of mass spectrometer and microscope, is a powerful tool to observe the spatial distribution of secondary metabolites.

　In order to distinguish the diversity and spatial distribution of natural products that marine organisms produced, Kuan-Ying Lai, a PhD program student in the 1st year advised by Professor Chih-Chuang Liaw, chose soft coral Lobophytum spp. as the research target, which were collected from Peng-hu National Park, Green Island, and Dongsha Atoll, respectively. Under the observation of MALDI IMS, Kuan-Ying Lai found that compounds with certain skeleton were highly exposed the tentacle side of Lobophytum spp., whereas the other cembrane-type compounds were present in the coenosarc side (connective tissue). We, further, try to combine with Mass-based molecular networking analysis to confirm the types of natural products in soft coral to understand the ecological functions and biosynthesis pathway of natural products that soft corals produced.