Metabolomics fingerprinting

Fourier transform ion-cyclotron (FT-ICR-MS) provides the highest mass resolution and accuracy, and enables the determination of the elemental compositions of metabolites, which facilitates annotation procedures for unknown compounds (95). Direct infusion analysis of plant extract without a previous separation and/or derivatization can be achieved however, its use is very restricted due to the equipment cost, the difficulties in hardware handling, and the extremely large amount of data generated. Takahashi et al. applied this technique to elucidate the effects of the overexpression of the YK1 gene in stress-tolerant GM rice (96). More than 850 metabolites could be determined, and the metabolomics fingerprint in callus, leaf, and panicle was significantly different from one another. 

Chen, H. Wortmann, A. Zenobi, R. Neutral desorption sampbng coupled to extractive electrospray ionization mass spectrometry for rapid differentiation of biosamples by metabolomic fingerprinting. J. Mass Spectwm. 2007, 42,1123-1135. 

Enot D, Beckmann M, Draper J (2007) Detecting a difference assessing generalisability when modelling metabolome fingerprint data in longer term studies of genetically modified plants. Metabolomics 3 335-347... 

Metabolomic fingerprints Human neonatal hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) 171... 

Metabolomic fingerprints Acute-on-chronic liver failure in humans with alcoholic cirrhosis, requiring intensive care 173... 

Figure 1.1. Metabolomic fingerprints showing interspecific variability of the chemical signal emitted by different sponges of the family OscareUidae, Class Homoscleromorpha HPLC-ESI (p) MS (BPC) with indications of m/z values above the peaks of the major compounds (from [CAR 12])...

However, chemical diversity of metabolites requires a variety of detection platforms and presents a unique challenge when one analyzes the metabolome for fingerprinting or... 

Finally, the field of metabolomics is still in its early stages of development. With advances in all the areas listed above (sample preparation, HPLC analysis, and MS analysis), the use of metabolomics to analyze metabolic pathways involving carotenoids may evolve from a simple targeted approach to a more sophisticated fingerprinting approach. 

In metabolomic studies, there are three commonly used research strategies, namely, targeted metabolomics, metabolite profiling, and analysis of metabolic fingerprints [12]. 

Quantitative analytical methods have been developed to identify metabolites in pathways or classes of compounds. This collective directed approach has been called metabolite profiling or metabolomics. Semiquantitative, NMR-based metabolic fingerprinting has also been applied to high abundance metabolites and has been termed metabonomics [188], Peaks detected in NMR spectra carry information regarding the structure of the metabolites,... 

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