Meeting the needs of the world’s population for food crops, animal feed, and plant-derived therapeutic and industrial products is highly complex. Successful crop productivity and yields, in part, rely on the farmer’s knowledge of land preparation, accurate weather forecasting, disease prevention, soil health, crop rotation schedules, weed and pest control, optimal irrigation strategies, and the use of high-quality seeds.
Agriculture success also hinges upon scientific innovations and technology derived from learnings, insights, and research conducted by partners in academia and industry. Delivering solutions with essential mechanistic insights is crucial to overcoming the challenges of supplying the rising population with a sustainable and economically viable food supply, animal feed, and vital therapeutic and industrial products.
Strategies focused on breeding for favorable agronomic traits (ie, pest and disease resistance, drought tolerance, and increased output) to improve crop yields and sustainable productivity is the primary goal of modern agriculture but the efficacy of some of these measures is waning, in part, because of climate variability and the emergence of new and resistant pathogens. While genome sequencing and expression analysis have contributed significantly to agriculture innovations, these technologies aren’t able to provide a complete picture of the functional metabolic changes occurring in plants.
Alternative strategies for crop improvement, enabled by fully characterizing and understanding the mechanisms that regulate seed dormancy, germination, and vigor as well as plant biology, growth, and development and factors that influence seed and plant physiology are needed. The impact of abiotic and biotic stress on sessile organisms that humans rely on so heavily deepens the need for meaningful insights, technologies, and strategies to meet these challenges.
Biological systems are exceedingly complex, and the plant metabolome is no exception as it is composed of hundreds of thousands of metabolites that play an important role in seed vigor and crop yield. Metabolomics fills a critical void in developing a comprehensive systems approach to seed and plant biology, providing a new frontier to study the phenotypic traits of plants by elucidating their functional metabolic composition and chemical fingerprint.
This powerful technology can reveal metabolic effects related to genetics (natural variations and mutations), plant growth and development, nutritional status, environmental perturbations, stress, pest, microbes, disease, agricultural chemicals and pesticides (eg, mode of action), pesticide resistance, and genetic modifications, etc.
Metabolomics provides a snapshot of all biochemicals present in a sample by identifying, quantifying, and mapping each metabolite in the system. This provides our clients with unique biological insight into the fundamental nature of any seed or plant trait in relation to both genetics (trait development, biodiversity, gene expression, mutations, genetic engineering, etc.) and the environment (abiotic stress, disease, nutrition, etc.). Researchers are using this deep fundamental insight as a critical tool for engineering solutions to meet the agricultural demands of our growing planet.
Metabolon’s nontargeted global metabolomics profiling revealed stress-induced changes in seed metabolism, which can provide novel potential metabolic hallmarks of germination.
The research team utilized global metabolomics to identify unique metabolites and developed targeted panels for these metabolites, which could later be used as suitable biomarkers, indicating the transition between phenological phases, such as endodormancy, ecodormancy, and ontogenetic development. This knowledge contributes to the overall understanding of phenological traits, which is critical for tree crops. Most importantly, this robust dataset can help elucidate the mechanisms and biochemical pathways associated with the dormancy phases of sweet cherry trees.
Once you see the full value of metabolomics, the only remaining question is: who does it best? While many laboratories have metabolite profiling or analytical chemistry capabilities, comprehensive metabolomics technologies are extremely rare.
Accurate, unbiased metabolite identification across the entire metabolome introduces signal-to-noise challenges that very few labs are equipped to handle. Also, translating massive quantities of data into actionable information is slow, if not impossible, for most because proper interpretation takes two things that are in short supply: experience and a comprehensive database.
Using our robust platform and visualization tools, our experts are uniquely able to tell you more about your molecule and develop assay panels to help you zero in on the results you need.
Coverage
Ability to interrogate thousands of metabolites across diverse biochemical space, revealing new insights and opportunities
Comparability
Ability to integrate the data from different studies into the same dataset, in different geographies, among different patients over time
Competency
Ability to inform on proper study design, generate high‐quality data, derive biological insights, and make actionable recommendations
Capacity
Ability to process hundreds of thousands of samples quickly and cost‐efficiently to service rapidly growing demand
Request a quote for our services, get more information on sample types and handling procedures, request a letter of support, or submit a question about how metabolomics can advance your research.
Corporate Headquarters
617 Davis Drive, Suite 100
Morrisville, NC 27560
Mailing Address
P.O. Box 110407
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709
Phone
+1 (919) 572-1711
Fax
+1 (919) 572-1721
International Headquarters
Metabolon GmbH
Zeppelinstraße 3
85399 Hallbergmoos
Germany
