The concept of metabolomic studies has been developed during the last decade. Comprehensive analysis of primary and secondary metabolites in living organisms grown under genetic and environmental stresses may deliver interesting information about the status of the studied microorganisms, plants or animals. The metabolome analysis may be performed using different methodical approaches and various physicochemical methods may be applied for identification of low molecular compounds. Due to huge sets of data collected during the metabolomic studies, different statistical calculations and bioinformatic technologies are used for the presentation and interpretation of the results.
Identification of gene functions needs information from different molecular levels: transcriptome, proteome and metabolome. Chromatographic techniques combined with different types of detectors are methods of choice for secondary metabolites profiling. Mass spectrometry is one of the best methods for natural products identification due to its high selectivity and sensitivity. However, physico-chemical properties of secondary metabolites present in plant species have very strong influence on the applicability of chromatographic techniques for separation of different classes of organic compounds present in the samples extracted from plant tissue. There does not exist an analytical method capable for separation and identification of all metabolites present in plant tissue during a single analysis. This article describes chromatographic systems combined with different mass spectrometric techniques for identification of different classes of secondary metabolites present in plant material.
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