To be fair, this has nothing to do with magic. Despite sometimes science looks so smooth that it feels like magic, reality is a tad more complicated.

Technically, mass spectrometry is an analytical technique that allows to separate and distinguish particles based on their weight. In short, the mass spectrometer works like a scale, but instead of weighing kilograms, it weighs molecules. And as a bonus, it also counts how many of these molecules are in the game.

Let’s talk money

Okay, this was the theoretical part. Let’s make it real now. Imagine you have a hand full of coins with all different values and all different amounts, for example, two times 20 cents, three times 50 cents, four times 1 euro, and so on – you got the gist of it. The MS will then sort each coin and count how many coins there are according to their value.

In the context of in ovo sexing, it is important to pick and count only one type of coin, which, in our case, is the biomarker Sabinamine.

The curious case of the Sabinamine molecule

The adventure begins with a droplet sample carefully extracted from the allantoic (what we commonly call the waste sack). One of the molecules inside this droplet, among many others, is our biomarker, the Sabinamine. The droplet is then diluted with some acid, which will help with the process at a later stage (no, we won’t go in-depth here but we owe you this one!).

This is when the droplet is transferred into the echo machine. The echo machine is the pre-stage before entering the MS. Let’s say it’s like a waiting room. Here, through electrical waves, the droplet flows through a tiny string which will spray the fluid and will finally get the particles sucked into the MS machine.

After many adventures, this is the moment: our molecule is finally there.

The MS machine operates in a vacuum, meaning there is no air inside and therefore no resistance for molecules to move. Yay, time to get loose! But here’s the thing: you get to this very cool party and there is a door after the corridor that is the VIP area. A bouncer stands at the front and you can only enter if you have the right pass.

Within the MS, something similar happens. The MS works as a filter and discards the other particles we are not interested in, focusing on the Sabinamine, which is the only one that can get through, as it has the right weight.

The life of the molecule has now served its purpose and comes to an end. Once it hits the detector it gets destroyed and the whole process starts again with a new molecule. Its legacy, however, is alive and kicking and it is what allows us to determine the sex of our eggs. A hot piece of graph will in fact tell us if the egg is a male (high peaks) or a female (low peaks).

Remember the saying? Science is magic that works.

MS… I choose you!

Jokes aside, there is a precise reason why we choose to use MS to analyse our samples in place of other techniques. Mass Spectrometry is cheap, fast and super accurate, but most importantly it doesn’t limit us to a single biomarker. This gives us the chance to look for a range of compounds, combine the analyses and potentially determine the sex of the egg at an earlier day of incubation, bringing advantages to both chick welfare and production.

There might be many more Sabinamines out there. After all, the possibilities are endless.