title: Plant metabolomics is not ripe for environmental risk assessment.
abstract: Metabolomics separates and detects small molecules and helps determine the composition of plant materials. This makes it appear to be a possible contributor to environmental risk assessment (ERA) of transgenic plants. Here we argue that, despite important advances in the technology, limited annotation and our limited knowledge of the role of metabolites in plant-environment interactions means that metabolomics is not yet ripe for ERA.
authors.affiliation: Plant Research International, BU Bioscience, P.O. Box 619, 6700 AP, Wageningen, The Netherlands; Laboratory of Plant Physiology, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 658, 6700 AR, Wageningen, The Netherlands. Electronic address: robert.hall@wur.nl.
authors.forename: Robert D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Hall
authors.affiliation: Plant Research International, BU Bioscience, P.O. Box 619, 6700 AP, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Ruud A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: de Maagd
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D055442:Metabolome; D055432:Metabolomics; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified / Q000378:metabolism*; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods
keywords: environmental risk assessment; genetically modified organisms; metabolomics; unintended effects