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Metabolomics on the NRPNRP Teams and Institutions involved in metabolomics research:
Some of the above teams have posted their key publications in metabolomics research on this website. The Metabolomics Group at the Institute of Food Research is led by Dr Gwenaelle Le Gall. Over the past twelve years we have been developing metabolite profiling procedures for food and plant analysis, using a combination of techniques such as of high resolution NMR, GC/MS and LC/MS and chemometrics. We have recently broadened our interest to nutritional metabolomics on samples issued from dietary human interventions and microbial metabolomics. A detailed description of the group and the projects conducted can be seen at www.ifr.ac.uk/metabolomics/
The Metabolite Service at The John Innes Centre supports scientists within the JIC whose work involves the measurement of metabolites, either in the context of metabolomics or metabolite profiling. The Service is embedded within the Department of Metabolic Biology and is managed by Dr Lionel Hill (01603 450268) to whom all enquiries should be initially addressed. We are happy to collaborate and share our expertise with others around the Norwich Research Park and beyond. We provide assistance in the development of methods, training of staff, and basic data handling and well as analysing samples. We have a selection of analytical instruments available to us, including: an Agilent LC1100 LC-MS (single quadrupole), a Thermo Scientific LC-MS ion-trap, a Thermo Scientific LC-MS-MS LTQ-Orbi-trap™ and an Agilent GC-MS (single quadrupole) instrument. All this instrumentation enables us to provide a bespoke metabolite service providing identification, quantification and where required, structural data for plant and microbial metabolites. See www.jic.ac.uk/SERVICES/metabolomics/index.htm
The Bioinformatics and Statistics Group at the Institute of Food Research is led by Dr Kate Kemsley. IFR has had a strong interest in multivariate statistics since the early '90s, when the mutual dependency of spectroscopy and chemometrics for quantitative work started to be recognized. The team works closely with IFR's Metabolomics Group. A key area of the team's work is the development and application of multivariate methods to the large, complex data sets generated by profiling techniques. One current area of interest is feature subset selection methods using genetic algorithms; see our list of recent publications. A summary of the group’s activities can be found at www.ifr.ac.uk/science/partnership/BS/
The FTIR Laboratory at the Institute of Food Research is extremely well-equipped. It has a Nicolet 860 research grade FTIR with external sample compartment, a Digilab FTS6000 with UMA600 Stingray focal plane imaging infrared microscope, two Digilab FTS175 FTIR systems with UMA 500 infrared microscopes, a Spectra-Tech Applied Systems Inc MONITIR bench-top FTIR, and a Digilab FT-Raman. A wide range of conventional and advanced sampling methods is available, including stretching rigs for mechanical and 2-dimensional FTIR studies. Collaboration between IFR and the JIC has led to the development of a rapid screening method for the identification of Arabidopsis mutants (leaves and hypocotyls) for which a dedicated system is currently deployed within the JIC. The method incorporates spectroscopic developments with the Win-DAS software developed at IFR. The FTIR team is headed by Dr Reg Wilson, a vibrational spectroscopist with over twenty years experience in the application of FTIR to food and biological problems including authentication, mutant screening and studies of the plant cell wall.
Molecular Phytopathology Group at The Sainsbury Laboratory is led by Dr Anne Osbourn +44 (0) 1603 450407; and focuses on antimicrobial secondary metabolites in plants and their role in protection against disease. Particular emphasis is placed on a class of pre-formed antimicrobial compounds, the saponins. These glycosylated triterpenoids and steroids are widespread in dicotyledonous plants. Cereals and grasses, in contrast, are generally deficient in these compounds, with the exception of oat (Avena spp.). The Group has used the unusual UV-fluorescent properties of a triterpenoid saponin found in oat roots, avenacin A-1, to isolate a collection of saponin-deficient (sad) mutants of diploid oat. These mutants are compromised in resistance to fungal pathogens, indicating that avenacin A-1 is required for full disease resistance. Very little is known about the genes and enzymes required for saponin biosynthesis in any plant species, consequently the sad collection provides a valuable resource for investigating biochemical defects. This investigation is currently being undertaken using HPLC, LC/MS/MS and NMR to study metabolite profiles. Current priorities are the isolation of oat genes for saponin biosynthesis and comparative analysis to determine why other cereals and grasses are unable to synthesise these compounds. A second project in the group is an investigation of the role of steroidal glycoalkaloid in disease resistance in the Solanaceae.
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