Metabolite-based genome-wide association studies in plants

The plant metabolome is the readout of plant physiological status and is regarded as the bridge between the genome and the phenome of plants. Unraveling the natural variation and the underlying genetic basis of plant metabolism has received increasing interest from plant biologists. Enabled by the recent advances in high-throughput profiling and genotyping technologies, metabolite-based genome-wide association study (mGWAS) has emerged as a powerful alternative forward genetics strategy to dissect the genetic and biochemical bases of metabolism in model and crop plants. In this review, recent progress and applications of mGWAS in understanding the genetic control of plant metabolism and in interactive functional genomics and metabolomics are presented. Further directions and perspectives of mGWAS in plants are also discussed.