Metabolomics breaks the silence

Abstract

The new field of functional genomics aims to identify the roles of uncharacterized genes present in sequenced genomes. A classical genetic approach to identify the function of an uncharacterized gene is to make a mutation in that gene and look for a resulting growth phenotype under a certain condition. Unfortunately, these mutations often do not produce an obvious phenotype, so called ‘silent’ mutations, leaving the investigator no wiser about the function of the uncharacterized gene than when they started.Often the lack of phenotype for a mutated gene is caused by the fact that the genome contains other genes that can substitute for its function under the conditions tested. If the ‘silent’ mutation is in a gene involved in metabolism, the cell must be able to bypass the potential metabolic obstacle by rerouting metabolism through different pathways, leaving no obvious change in the flux through the system. A method has now been developed that should allow determination of the functions of many of these silent genes 1xA functional genomics strategy that uses metabolome data to reveal the phenotype of silent mutations. Raamsdonk, L.M et al. Nat. Biotechnol. 2001; 19: 45–50Crossref | PubMed | Scopus (675)See all