An investigation of boron toxicity in barley using metabolomics.

Boron (B) is an essential micronutrient that affects plant growth at either deficient or toxic concentrations in soil. The aim of this work was to investigate the adaptation of barley (Hordeum vulgare) plants to toxic B levels and to increase our understanding of B toxicity tolerance mechanisms. We used a metabolomics approach to compare metabolite profiles in root and leaf tissues of an intolerant, commercial cultivar (cv Clipper) and a B-tolerant Algerian landrace (cv Sahara).

GC-MS libraries for the rapid identification of metabolites in complex biological samples.

Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry based metabolite profiling of biological samples is rapidly becoming one of the cornerstones of functional genomics and systems biology. Thus, the technology needs to be available to many laboratories and open exchange of information is required such as those achieved for transcript and protein data. The key-step in metabolite profiling is the unambiguous identification of metabolites in highly complex metabolite preparations with composite structure.