About this Research Topic

Background

This Research Topic addresses recent methodological advances in the analysis of the metabolome of crop plant species. We emphasize the application of metabolome-derived knowledge in crop biotechnology.

The metabolome is an ensemble of molecules produced by cellular processes and is the final response of a biological system to environmental or genetic changes. The plant metabolome is composed of over 200,000 metabolites. These metabolites control plant development and responses to environmental changes. The plant metabolome includes a wide range of compounds with high nutritional value, organoleptic properties, and activities that are beneficial to human health. It is crucial to characterize the metabolome of plants to understand how crops function and respond to stress conditions, produce quality products, how to engineer metabolic pathways, and how to assess food safety.

Advances in metabolomics largely depend on the evolution of analytical methodologies - that identify and quantify metabolites in parallel – and on the development of bioinformatics tools - that harness the wealth of information provided by analytical methods. Metabolomics is currently enabled through integrated analytical technologies such as nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and different mass spectrometry (MS)-based methods, including liquid chromatography and gas chromatography (LC-MS and GC-MS) coupled to MS, and Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance MS (FTICR-MS). The integration of metabolomics data with genomics and transcriptomics data, through a systems biology approach, provides us with a complete overview of metabolic network regulation and cellular functions. It is of utmost importance to further develop bioinformatic tools to manage large amounts of data, identify metabolites, group them into functional classes, and to perform statistical and pathway analyses.

This Research Topic addresses contemporary methodologies in crop plant metabolomics and their applications in crop biotechnology. We particularly welcome the submission of manuscripts dealing with the following:
- metabolomics in crop development, crop productivity and quality improvement
- metabolomics in plant-pathogen interactions
- metabolomics in the detection of pesticides
- systems biology approaches combining metabolomics with proteomics and/or transcriptomics
- bioinformatics tools for plant metabolomics

We welcome the submission of the following article types: Original Research, Reviews, Perspective, and Methods.

Keywords: Metabolomics, NMR, Mass spectrometry, agriculture, crop productivity, quality improvement, crop development, plant resistance, plant metabolism

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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