Rice metabolomics

Abstract

Metabolomics is a recently developed technology for comprehensive analysis of metabolites in organisms. Plant metabolites that are produced for the growth, development, and chemical defense of plants against climatic alterations or natural predators are also useful to us as nutrients or medicines; hence, it is important to comprehend the amounts and varieties of plant metabolites. Besides providing an understanding of the metabolic state in plants under various circumstances, metabolomic techniques are applicable to the clarification of the functions of unknown genes by using natural variants or mutants of the target plants. Furthermore, a metabolomic approach might be useful in the breeding of crops, since valuable plant traits such as taste and yield are closely related to metabolic conditions. Here, we describe the methodology of metabolomics including sample extraction and preparation,metabolite detection, and data processing and analysis, and introduce the application ofmetabolomic studies to rice. © Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2008.