Lipid informatics and new development of metabolome

Abstract

Metabolomics is a relatively new discipline and techniques for high-throughput metabolic profiling and still under development. No single technique is suitable for the analysis of all different types of molecules, so a mixture of techniques is used. Methods such as gas. chromatography-mass spectrometry, capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry, liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry and Fourier transform-ion cyclotron resonance-mass spectrometry are used to separate metabolites according to various chemical and physical properties. After analysis of data obtained from mass spectrometry, bioinformatic databases are required to identify metabolites. In lipidomics, several databases are developed for this purpose, such as Lipid Search, LIPID BANK for Web, Atomic Reconstruction of Metabolism (ARM). Lipid Search is a database for identification of lipid compounds, LIPID BANK for Web is lipid encyclopedia, and ARM is software for drawing metabolic map. In near future, these databases will be linked each other and contribute to further development of lipidomics.