Widely targeted metabolomics and coexpression analysis as tools to identify genes involved in the side-chain elongation steps of aliphatic glucosinolate biosynthesis

Amino acid and glucosinolate biosynthesis are two interdependent pathways; amino acid synthesis as a part of primary metabolism provides the precursors for glucosinolate biosynthesis in secondary metabolism. In our previous studies, the combination of coexpression analysis and metabolite profiling led to the identification of genes and key regulators involved in glucosinolate biosynthesis. Moreover, the integration of transcriptome and metabolome data of sulphur-deprived Arabidopsis plants revealed coordinate changes in the expression profiles of genes involved in glucosinolate and amino acid metabolism. This review provides an overview of our recent studies involving Arabidopsis mutant plants that exhibit impairment in the side-chain elongation process occurring during aliphatic glucosinolate biosynthesis by means of coexpression analysis and a novel metabolite profiling approach based on ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem quadrupole mass spectrometry (UPLC-TQMS) (Sawada et al. 2009a). Thus, this review highlights the advantages of the omics-based approach in identifying genes involved in glucosinolate biosynthesis.