Basic Concepts of High throughput Metabolomics in Plants

Each cell contains many different metabolites and chemical molecules which are generated during cellular process. All the metabolites present in a cell at a particular time is called metabolome. The study of all the metabolites and their modification in a particular condition is called metabolomics. Metabolome is closely linked with genotype, physiology and environment. So,in a nutshell, metabolomics is the study of substrates and products of metabolism which are influenced by the genetic and environmental factors. In plants, metabolomics has now been frequently developed and studied in biotic and abiotic stress resistance. High throughput metabolomics includes time efficient and effective metabolite profiling techniques. These techniques are chromatography based and chromatography free methods. Chromatographic methods are NMR, GC-MS and LC-MS . Chromatographv free techniques include DI-MS,FI-MS,MALDI and Ambient MS . This paper will give an idea about how metabolomics work in elucidating plants phenotype, how sample is prepared for metabolite profiling, different techniques of metabolite profiling and various metabolomic databases.