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Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy of single subnanoliter ova

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is, in principle, a promising candidate to study the intracellular chemistry of single microscopic living entities. However, due to sensitivity limitations, NMR experiments were reported only on very few and relatively large single cells down to a minimum volume of 10 nl. Here we show NMR spectroscopy of single ova at volume scales (0.1 and 0.5 nl) where life development begins for a broad variety of animals, humans included. We demonstrate that the sensitivity achieved by miniaturized inductive NMR probes (few pmol of 1H nuclei in some hours at 7 T) is sufficient to observe chemical heterogeneities among subnanoliter ova of tardigrades. Such sensitivities should allow to non-invasively monitor variations of concentrated intracellular compounds, such as glutathione, in single mammalian zygotes.