Other Omics

As in the other -omics, analyses may be directed at a specific metabolite, at all metabolites in a given system in a shot-gun approach, or at accessible groups of molecules in profiling experiments. In that also the technology varies. In addition, the chemistry of different metabolites is very heterogeneous since it involves hydrophobic lipids, hydrophilic carbohydrates, ionic inorganic species, and other secondary natural products and already the choice of solvent in metabolite extraction dictates which types of molecules will be present (Fig. 10.8). Therefore, total metabolome profiling is not possible, because no analytical method will be able to accommodate all the different molecule classes at once. 

Proteins and messenger RNA are directly related to genes (as products of their expression). In turn, metabolites can be treated as intermediates products of the genetic code. For this reason, analysis of the genome is difficult to associate with analysis of metabolites. Moreover, metabolomics seems to be more difficult to analyze and biologically interpret than other -omics. However, this does not mean that metabolomics cannot offer invaluable information. On the contrary, this... 

Metabolomics is now an integral part of most major systems biology grants we can thus expect more coordinated large-scale efforts and projects of high-quality research where metabolite profiling data will be fused with that from other Omics platforms. Most importantly, standardization and establishment of robust and reliable cross-platform metabolomics databases are absolutely necessary. Such initiatives (57) are needed to promote the topic and finally assess its utility in enhancing the quality of human life. 

In conclusion, proteomics has demonstrated to be an extremely powerful tool in toxicology. It is believed that proteomics will become a must have technology with the development of new types of MS instruments and improvements in technical specifications. Performance of toxicological studies on a systems biology level by integrating proteomics data with other omics data will likely provide the most comprehensive and informative information to better understand the mechanisms of toxicity and disease. 

Unlike other omics techniques, it is clear that metabonomics is very much an emerging field and new lessons on how to conduct a proper metabonomics study are learned each day. A very positive development is that in an effort to standardize the reporting standards for metabonomics studies, a first draft of a minimum requirement for the description of the biological materials and/or processes examined in a metabolomic study involving mammalian subjects was published in 2007 [89],... 

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