Plant Biology-Metabolomics Candidate Teaching Seminar

Toshihiro Obata
Postdoc, Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology

Abstract: Abiotic stress is defined as the negative impact of environmental factors on living organisms. Plants respond to abiotic stresses in various levels including gene expression, protein, metabolism, physiology and development. Among these, metabolic responses play crucial roles in order to maintain cellular viability. Metabolomics is a valuable approach to dissect plant metabolic responses to environment in systems level. Since abiotic stresses have great impact on crop productivity, a number of studies have been conducted to understand plant responses to stressful environments.  However, plant stress response is a complex phenomenon and the results should be assessed with special care. There are some important points to be noted when the stress response is analyzed including 1) severity of stress, 2) organ and developmental stage specificity, 3) conjugated nature of abiotic stresses, 4) active and passive responses and 5) timing of responses. In this lecture the methodology of metabolomics is briefly introduced and plant metabolic responses to drought stress will be presented from this perspective.