Abstract:
Metabolomic analyses can reveal associations between an organism\'s metabolome and further aspects of its phenotypic state, an attractive prospect for many life-sciences researchers. The metabolomic approach has been employed in some, but not many, insect study systems, starting in 1990 with the evaluation of the metabolic effects of parasitism on moth larvae. Metabolomics has now been applied to a variety of aspects of insect biology, including behaviour, infection, temperature stress responses, CO 2 sedation, and bacteria-insect symbiosis. From a technical and reporting standpoint, these studies have adopted a range of approaches utilising established experimental methodologies. Here, we review current literature and evaluate the metabolomic approaches typically utilised by entomologists. We suggest that improvements can be made in several areas, including sampling procedures, the reduction in sampling and equipment variation, the use of sample extracts, statistical analyses, confirmation, and metabolite identification. Overall, it is clear that metabolomics can identify correlations between phenotypic states and underlying cellular metabolism that previous, more targeted, approaches are incapable of measuring. The unique combination of untargeted global analyses with high-resolution quantitative analyses results in a tool with great potential for future entomological investigations.
摘要:
代谢组学分析可以揭示生物体代谢组与其表型状态的其他方面之间的关联,对许多生命科学研究人员来说,这是一个有吸引力的前景。代谢组学方法已经在一些地方被采用,但不是很多,昆虫研究系统,从1990年开始评估寄生虫对蛾幼虫的代谢作用。代谢组学现已应用于昆虫生物学的各个方面,包括行为,感染,温度应激反应,CO2镇静剂,和细菌-昆虫共生。从技术和报告的角度来看,这些研究采用了一系列利用既定实验方法的方法。这里,我们回顾了当前的文献,并评估了昆虫学家通常使用的代谢组学方法。我们建议可以在几个方面进行改进,包括抽样程序,采样和设备变化的减少,样品提取物的使用,统计分析,确认,和代谢物鉴定。总的来说,很明显,代谢组学可以识别表型状态和以前的潜在细胞代谢之间的相关性,更有针对性,方法是无法测量的。无针对性的全球分析与高分辨率定量分析的独特组合导致了一种具有未来昆虫学研究潜力的工具。