Metabolomics and Its Application to Microbial Study

Metabolomics is a new emerging subject following genomics and proteomics. The definition and development of metabolomics, as well as the studing methods and the technological process involved, especially its application to microbial study were introduced. Firstly, Its role were introduced in analyzing the degradation of all the environmental contaminants by microbe. Secondly, the techniques involved in metabolomics used in the analysis of microbial metabolic fluxes was depicted. The third one and also the most popular one is the function identification of some "mutant genes". The last introduced aspect is its use in the design of some microbial experiments. With the help of metabolomics, the optimal sampling time and the proper tissue used in the experiment can be established, and some disturbing factors can be known in advance and thus some unnecessary consumption can be avoided. Finally the trends in metabolomics was discussed.