Focused Metabolite Profiling for Dissecting Cellular and Molecular Processes of Living Organisms in Space Environments

Regulatory control in biological systems is exerted at all levels within the central dogma of biology. Metabolites are the end products of all cellular regulatory processes and reflect the ultimate outcome of potential changes suggested by genomics and proteomics caused by an environmental stimulus or genetic modification. Following on the heels of genomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics, metabolomics has become an inevitable part of complete-system biology because none of the lower "-omics" alone provide direct information about how changes in mRNA or protein are coupled to changes in biological function. The challenges are much greater than those encountered in genomics because of the greater number of metabolites and the greater diversity of their chemical structures and properties. To meet these challenges, much developmental work is needed, including (1) methodologies for unbiased extraction of metabolites and subsequent quantification, (2) algorithms for systematic identification of metabolites, (3) expertise and competency in handling a large amount of information (data set), and (4) integration of metabolomics with other "omics" and data mining (implication of the information). This article reviews the project accomplishments.