Metabolomics - Useful Tool for Study of Plant Responses to Abiotic Stresses

Abiotic stresses are produced by inappropriate levels of physical components of the environment and cause plant injury through unique mechanisms that result in specific responses. Metabolomics is a relatively new approach aimed at improved understanding of metabolic networks and the subsequent biochemical composition of plants and other biological organisms. The paper is focused on the use of metabolomics, metabolic profiling and metabolic fingerprinting to study plant responses to some environmental stresses (eg elevated temperature, chilling and freezing, drought, high salinity, UV radiation, high ozone levels, nutrient deficiency, oxidative stress, herbicides and heavy metals). Attention is also devoted to the effects of some environmental factors on plants such as high or low levels of CO₂ or different levels of irradiance. Alterations of plants metabolites due to multiple abiotic stresses (drought-heat, drought-salinity, elevated CO₂-salinity) are analysed as well. In addition, metabolomic approach to study plant responses to some artificial abiotic stresses, mechanical stress or pulsed electric field-induced stress is discussed. The most important analytical methods applied in metabolomics are presented and perspectives of metabolomics exploitation in the future are outlined, too.