The advancement of genomics technologies in the last decade has been extremely rapid
and the opportunity for novel experimentation profound. However, whilst there has
been much focus on large molecules (DNA, RNA and protein), small molecules have been
somewhat neglected in international efforts. This is odd given the essential importance
of small molecules in determining functional performance and phenotype and our emerging
understanding of their role as signals that interplay with and regulate gene expression
and protein activity in biological networks. In this presentation the importance of
the analysis of small molecules via metabolite profiling will be introduced and illustrated
with examples from the work of metanomics, a company which has pioneered industrial
metabolomics. Today laboratories are operated with some 60 mass spectrometers allowing
a throughput of >100,000 samples per year. This capability has been deployed in plant
functional genomics: the company has generated large, unique, populations of Arabidopsis
and crop plants where genes have been systematically overexpressed or knocked out
at a genome scale. Screening the metabolite profiles of these transgenic lines enables
genes to be rapidly selected which influence and control commercially important areas
of metabolism e.g. oils, amino acids, vitamins or sugars. Further the linking of metabolic
data to genetic and phenotypic data has been demonstrated to be of particular importance
and the status of such system biology approaches based on metabolite profiling data
will be reviewed.
