WEIGHING IN ON METABOLOMICS

摘要

While genomics is the study of the genes in an organism and proteomics offers a global view of the proteins, metabolomics analyzes the entire collection of metabolites, small molecules generated as part of the normal life cycle. Compounds called ascarosides are metabolites found in the commonly studied nematode model organism, Caenorhabditis elegans. Ascarosides serve as signaling molecules that are fundamental to the development and behavior of the nematode, but little is known about their various chemical structures or how they are made.