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Molecular Techniques in Crop Improvement pp 493–510Cite as

Metabolomics: Novel Tool for Studying Complex Biological Systems

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Abstract

The new era of functional genomics is leading towards the discovery of gene functions. Genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics aim to acquire a comprehensive and integrated understanding of living organisms. Metabolomics defines the phenotype of an organism from the chemical point of view, by analysing the ultimate products of the entire metabolic network at a certain point in time. Plant metabolomics is a powerful tool in systems biology and functional genomics studies, it has already been applied for agricultural purposes (screening of progeny stability, analysis of plant-pathogen interaction), in substantial equivalence studies of GMO and in quality evaluation of food, beverages and phytomedicines. The range of metabolites in an organism is so diverse that so far none of the analytical technologies applied for metabolomics studies purpose result to be adequate, and a combination of them must be used

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pharmacognosy, Section of Metabolomics, Institute of Biology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Federica Maltese & Robert Verpoorte

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  1. Federica Maltese
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  2. Robert Verpoorte
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Correspondence to Robert Verpoorte .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Applied Biology, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    S. Mohan Jain

  2. Institute (IRRI), Social Sciences Division, International Rice Research, Metro Manila, Philippines

    D.S. Brar

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Maltese, F., Verpoorte, R. (2010). Metabolomics: Novel Tool for Studying Complex Biological Systems. In: Jain, S., Brar, D. (eds) Molecular Techniques in Crop Improvement. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2967-6_20

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