Metabolomics

Metabolomics capability is being applied to the study of plant, microbial and mammalian metabolomes.  Resources include expertise in metabolite profiling using high performance GC- and LC-MS instruments and by direct infusion ESI-MS/MS.  Metabolic profiling of food extracts uses GC-MS and HPLC-PDA to obtain profiles of the major classes of compounds present: primary metabolites, flavour volatiles and terpenes, lipids, phenolics, anthocyanin and carotenoid pigments.  LC-MS/MS and high resolution GC-MS instruments are used to identify individual plant components and metabolites resulting from ingestion of plant components.

Metabolic profiling approaches are complimented by more accurate targeted analyses of organic acids and sugars, amino acids, bioactive phytochemicals, microbial toxins, and chemical residues in foods.  In-house Compound and Metabolomics databases are either available or in development to access to the results of these experiments.

Contact: Daryl Rowan, HortResearch and Rufus Turner, Crop & Food Research