Comparative metabolome profiling using two dimensional thin layer chromatography (2DTLC): Applications to bacterial metabolomics

Abstract

A tremendous amount of DNA sequence information is now available for both pathogenic and non-pathogenic bacteria and provides the foundation for studying how the genome of these organisms functions. To complete the full phenotypic characteristics of bacteria, it is essential to define the metabolite components (the metabolome) as well (Figure 1). Since the first paper on the metabolome of Escherichia coli only six years ago (Tweeddale et al, 1998), there is now an exponential growth phase in metabolome research, as occurred earlier with genome, proteome and transcript analyses. © 2005 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. All rights reserved.