Metabolomics: Integrating the Metabolome and the Proteome for Systems Biology

Abstract

The term ‘metabolome’ was coined in analogy to ‘genome’ and ‘proteome’ and relates to the metabolism. The metabolome contains all the characteristic metabolic activities of a cell or tissue and can be described on the basis of conversion rates, enzyme activities and intermediates, the set of metabolites. In order to study a cell, tissue or an organism in its entirety it is not sufficient to merely consider its metabolome alone. Only the interactions and synergisms between the transcriptome, the proteome and finally the metabolome will furnish the key to a functioning living system. This approach does not only promise to provide an improved picture of the metabolic processes and the interaction. In this way, we also hope to understand the function of hitherto unknown genes representing a large proportion of all so far published genomes. Finally, computer models for making predictions of the metabolic network and their iterative linkage to experimental data via the interaction of proteins and metabolic processes may contribute to studying fundamental mechanisms of metabolism.