title: MeRy-B: a web knowledgebase for the storage, visualization, analysis and annotation of plant NMR metabolomic profiles.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Improvements in the techniques for metabolomics analyses and growing interest in metabolomic approaches are resulting in the generation of increasing numbers of metabolomic profiles. Platforms are required for profile management, as a function of experimental design, and for metabolite identification, to facilitate the mining of the corresponding data. Various databases have been created, including organism-specific knowledgebases and analytical technique-specific spectral databases. However, there is currently no platform meeting the requirements for both profile management and metabolite identification for nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiments.
  
  
  METHODS
  MeRy-B, the first platform for plant (1)H-NMR metabolomic profiles, is designed (i) to provide a knowledgebase of curated plant profiles and metabolites obtained by NMR, together with the corresponding experimental and analytical metadata, (ii) for queries and visualization of the data, (iii) to discriminate between profiles with spectrum visualization tools and statistical analysis, (iv) to facilitate compound identification. It contains lists of plant metabolites and unknown compounds, with information about experimental conditions, the factors studied and metabolite concentrations for several plant species, compiled from more than one thousand annotated NMR profiles for various organs or tissues.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  MeRy-B manages all the data generated by NMR-based plant metabolomics experiments, from description of the biological source to identification of the metabolites and determinations of their concentrations. It is the first database allowing the display and overlay of NMR metabolomic profiles selected through queries on data or metadata. MeRy-B is available from http://www.cbib.u-bordeaux2.fr/MERYB/index.php.
authors.affiliation: Université de Bordeaux, Centre de Bioinformatique de Bordeaux, Génomique Fonctionnelle Bordeaux, F-33076 Bordeaux, France.
authors.forename: Hélène
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ferry-Dumazet
authors.forename: Laurent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gil
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Deborde
authors.forename: Annick
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Moing
authors.forename: Stéphane
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bernillon
authors.forename: Dominique
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rolin
authors.forename: Macha
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nikolski
authors.forename: Antoine
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: de Daruvar
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Jacob
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003628:Database Management Systems; D016208:Databases, Factual; D020407:Internet; D051188:Knowledge Bases; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; D055432:Metabolomics / Q000379:methods*; D010944:Plants / Q000737:chemistry*; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D014584:User-Computer Interface