Plant Metabolomics: An Overview of Technology Platforms for Applications in Metabolism

Abstract

The science of plant metabolomics has revolutionised the underlying platform of research on biological systems. The integration of plant metabolomics with allied branches, namely, system biology, biostatistics and in silico biology, has emerged as significant advancement in comprehensive metabolic profiling of phytomolecules in plant. Further, metabolomics strategies with high level of compositional specificity dealing with both intra- and inter-level organisation of the organism have achieved the predefined standards with overwhelming response. The present chapter entails the achievements and challenges associated with research on plant metabolomics, beginning with a brief introduction on plant metabolomics as interdisciplinary field and recent approaches employed for profiling of plant metabolites. Further, the chapter describes the omics strategies involved in metabolome research and various analytical techniques employed for detection and quantification of plant metabolites. The application ranging from metabolic engineering to abiotic stress response and from in vitro studies to application in functional genomics highlights the rising significance of plant metabolomics as a functional genomics tool. Although studies on plant metabolome have emerged as prospective strategies and contributed tremendously to its growth in recent years, some of the major challenges associated need to be addressed for the science of plant metabolomics to flourish and strengthen in future. Metabolomics is a relatively newer approach aimed at improving understanding of metabolic networks and the subsequent biochemical compositions of the plants and other biological organisms. The important aspects relevant to metabolomics are presented, and perspectives of metabolomics exploitation in the future are outlined. 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.