Abstract
The primary and secondary metabolites found in plant cells are the final recipients of biological information flow. In turn, their levels can influence gene expression and protein stability. Qualitative and quantitative measurements of these metabolites reflect the cellular state under defined conditions, and yield critical insights into the cellular processes that control the biochemical phenotype of the cell, tissue or whole organism. Metabolomics differs from traditional targeted phytochemical analysis in various fundamental aspects; for example, it is a data-driven approach with predictive power that aims to assess all measurable metabolites without any pre-conception or pre-selection. As such, metabolomics is providing new dimensions in the study of systems biology, enabling the in-depth understanding of the intra- and extracellular interactions of plant cells. Metabolomics is also developing into a valuable tool that can be used to monitor and assess gene function, and to characterise post-genomic processes from a broad perspective. Here, we give an overview of the fundamental analytical technologies and subsequent multivariate data analyses involved in plant metabolomics as a research tool to study various aspects of plant biology.
Highlights
An organism is an expression of its underlying molecular composition that reacts and responds to a variety of intra, inter- and extracellular stimuli
A range of analytical technologies may be used in metabolomics, including gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-Mass Spectrometry (MS)), capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry (CE-MS), liquid chromatographymass spectrometry (LC-MS), liquid chromatography-electrochemistrymass spectrometry (LC-EC-MS), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, Liquid Chromatography (LC)-NMR, direct infusion mass spectrometry (DIMS), and Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR)- and Raman spectroscopies.[8,10,14,31,32]
Recent developments in enhancing chromatographic separation of complex samples include the use of multidimensional separation systems such as two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC×GC) and two-dimensional liquid chromatography (LC×LC)
Summary
AFFILIATION: 1Department of Biochemistry, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa. POSTAL ADDRESS: Department of Biochemistry, University of Johannesburg, PO Box 524, Auckland Park 2006, South Africa. Plant metabolomics: A new frontier in phytochemical analysis. The primary and secondary metabolites found in plant cells are the final recipients of biological information flow. Their levels can influence gene expression and protein stability. Metabolomics differs from traditional targeted phytochemical analysis in various fundamental aspects; for example, it is a data-driven approach with predictive power that aims to assess all measurable metabolites without any pre-conception or pre-selection. Metabolomics is providing new dimensions in the study of systems biology, enabling the in-depth understanding of the intra- and extracellular interactions of plant cells. We give an overview of the fundamental analytical technologies and subsequent multivariate data analyses involved in plant metabolomics as a research tool to study various aspects of plant biology
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