The plant metabolome is highly complex, being composed of over 200,000 metabolites. The characterization of these small molecules has been crucial to study plant growth and development as well as their response to environmental changes. The potential of metabolomics in plant research, particularly if applied to crop plants, is also extremely valuable in the discovery of biomarkers and in the improvement of crop yield and quality. This Frontiers Research Topic addresses many applications of metabolomics to crop research, based on different analytical platforms, including mass spectrometry, and nuclear magnetic resonance. It comprises 13 articles from 109 authors that show the importance and the contribution of metabolomics in the analysis of crop’s traceability and genetic variation, in the study of fruit development, and in the understanding of the plant’s response to the environment and to different biotic and abiotic stresses.

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Metabolomics – which deals with all metabolites of an organism – is a rapidly-emerging sector of post-genome research fields. It plays significant roles in a variety of fields from medicine to agriculture and holds a fundamental position in functional genomics studies and their application in plant biotechnology. This volume comprehensively covers plant metabolomics for the first time. The chapters offer cutting-edge information on analytical technology, bioinformatics and applications. They were all written by leading researchers who have been directly involved in plant metabolomics research throughout the world. Up-to-date information and future developments are described, thereby producing a volume which is a landmark of plant metabolomics research and a beneficial guideline to graduate students and researchers in academia, industry, and technology transfer organizations in all plant science fields.

Giving a fresh, substantial and in-depth overview of the topic, this book brings together the latest results in the field of metabolomics. It comprehensively presents the current state of the metabolomics field by underscoring experimental methods, analysis techniques, standardization practices, and advances in specific model systems. As a result, it helps to significantly broaden our perspective on the principles and strategies underpinning this emerging field.

This book introduces plant metabolomics, an experimental approach that is important in both functional genomics and systems biology. It can be argued that metabolite data is most closely linked to phenotypes and that changes in metabolite content or metabolic networks can therefore indicate gene function more directly than mRNA transcript or protein based-approaches. Additionally, the identification of metabolic markers has important applications in plant breeding. The book, written by researchers who are active in plant metabolomics in China, not only introduces the fundamental concepts and the latest methodological advances in the field of plant metabolomics, but also details new studies from the respective scientific programs of the authors and thus reflects the current state of domestic plant metabolomics research. Professor Xiaoquan Qi is the principal investigator at the Institute of Botany, CAS. Professor Xiaoya Chen is a member of the Chinese Academy of Science and also is the principal investigator at the Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, CAS. Professor Yulan Wang is leading a team in BioSpectroscopy and Metabolomics at the Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics, CAS.

Metabolomics is the methodology and theory to study the metabolome, including targeted approaches based on selected/multiple reaction monitoring (SRM/MRM) and untargeted approaches based on nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) or mass spectrometry (MS). The metabolome contains all metabolites derived from sugars, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids in a given biological system, tissue, cell, or body fluid in a metabolic network system. Metabolomic variations directly link to molecular mechanisms of a disease, reliable therapeutic targets, and effective biomarkers for prediction, diagnosis, and prognostic assessment of disease. This book presents new advances in the concept and methodology of metabolomics, as well as applications of metabolomics in the research and practice of medical and life sciences.