Metabolomics and its use in ecology |
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| Authors: | Oliver A. H. Jones Mahon L. Maguire Julian L. Griffin Daniel A. Dias David J. Spurgeon Claus Svendsen |
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| Affiliation: | 1. School of Applied Sciences, RMIT University, , Melbourne, Victoria, 3001 Australia;2. BHF Magnetic Resonance Unit, Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, , Oxford, UK;3. The Sanger Building, Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, , Cambridge, UK;4. Metabolomics Australia, School of Botany, The University of Melbourne, , Parkville, Victoria, Australia;5. The Maclean Building, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, , Wallingford, Oxfordshire, UK |
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| Abstract: | Metabolomics may be defined as the analysis of thousands of naturally occurring small molecules (metabolites) such as sugars, organic acids, amino acids and nucleotides that are the products of cellular metabolism. As such, it is essentially the study of the complete biochemical phenotype (or metabotype) of any biofluid, cell, tissue or indeed organism, at both the qualitative and quantitative level. Metabolic profiles are context dependent, and will change in response to environmental circumstances. Therefore, while the technique has primarily been used in biomedical research to date, it is also applicable to ecological investigations and shows great promise in measuring the impact of factors such as climate change, disease, food restriction, infection and parasite load. In this review we detail the history and background of metabolomics and discuss examples of previous and potential future metabolic studies and applications in ecological science. |
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| Keywords: | analytical chemistry biology ecotoxicology metabolic profiling metabonomics |
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