Abstract
Within the plant kingdom, it has been estimated that several hundred thousand
different metabolic components may be produced, with abundances varying
through of six orders of magnitude. The goal of metabolomics is a
comprehensive and non-targeted analysis of metabolites in a biological
system. Any valid metabolomic approach must be able to unbiasedly extract,
separate, detect and accurately quantitate this enormous diversity of chemical
compounds. These requirements dictate the challenges that are continually
addressed in the field of plant metabolomics. To date, both gas- and liquidbased chromatography systems, in combination with various MS detection
technologies, have been employed to analyse complex mixtures of extracted
metabolites. In addition, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy has been
used to fingerprint plant systems, but will be not discussed in this context and
has been reviewed elsewhere.
Although the technologies employed in metabolomic analyses are uncovering
a huge amount of new knowledge in biology, a range of challenges are still to
be faced. One bottleneck in metabolomic analysis is the identification of novel
compounds. Additionally, in order to allow greatest spatial resolution, the
sensitivity and selectivity of currently available technologies has to be
increased. Multi-parallel and high-throughput analyses result in large data sets
which need be evaluated, extracted, and interpreted. As a result, automated
algorithms have to be developed. One of the major future challenges in the
metabolomics field will be the integration of metabolic data with genomic and
proteomic data sets. The ultimate goal is to comprehensively describe complex
biological systems and as such, metabolomics has become an important player
in systems biology. In the following text each of these challenges concurrently
being connected with metabolomic analyses will be discussed.
different metabolic components may be produced, with abundances varying
through of six orders of magnitude. The goal of metabolomics is a
comprehensive and non-targeted analysis of metabolites in a biological
system. Any valid metabolomic approach must be able to unbiasedly extract,
separate, detect and accurately quantitate this enormous diversity of chemical
compounds. These requirements dictate the challenges that are continually
addressed in the field of plant metabolomics. To date, both gas- and liquidbased chromatography systems, in combination with various MS detection
technologies, have been employed to analyse complex mixtures of extracted
metabolites. In addition, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy has been
used to fingerprint plant systems, but will be not discussed in this context and
has been reviewed elsewhere.
Although the technologies employed in metabolomic analyses are uncovering
a huge amount of new knowledge in biology, a range of challenges are still to
be faced. One bottleneck in metabolomic analysis is the identification of novel
compounds. Additionally, in order to allow greatest spatial resolution, the
sensitivity and selectivity of currently available technologies has to be
increased. Multi-parallel and high-throughput analyses result in large data sets
which need be evaluated, extracted, and interpreted. As a result, automated
algorithms have to be developed. One of the major future challenges in the
metabolomics field will be the integration of metabolic data with genomic and
proteomic data sets. The ultimate goal is to comprehensively describe complex
biological systems and as such, metabolomics has become an important player
in systems biology. In the following text each of these challenges concurrently
being connected with metabolomic analyses will be discussed.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | CONCEPTS IN PLANT METABOLOMICS |
| Publisher | Springer |
| ISBN (Print) | 978-1-4020-5607-9 |
| Publication status | Published - 2007 |
| Externally published | Yes |