title: The utility of metabolomics in natural product and biomarker characterization.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Metabolomics is a well-established rapidly developing research field involving quantitative and qualitative metabolite assessment within biological systems. Recent improvements in metabolomics technologies reveal the unequivocal value of metabolomics tools in natural products discovery, gene-function analysis, systems biology and diagnostic platforms.
  
  
  METHODS
  We review here some of the prominent metabolomics methodologies employed in data acquisition and analysis of natural products and disease-related biomarkers.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This review demonstrates that metabolomics represents a highly adaptable technology with diverse applications ranging from environmental toxicology to disease diagnosis. Metabolomic analysis is shown to provide a unique snapshot of the functional genetic status of an organism by examining its biochemical profile, with relevance toward resolving phylogenetic associations involving horizontal gene transfer and distinguishing subgroups of genera possessing high genetic homology, as well as an increasing role in both elucidating biosynthetic transformations of natural products and detecting preclinical biomarkers of numerous disease states.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This review expands the interest in multiplatform combinatorial metabolomic analysis. The applications reviewed range from phylogenetic assignment, biosynthetic transformations of natural products, and the detection of preclinical biomarkers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacognosy, Pharmacology, Chemistry and Biochemistry and Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy, The University of Mississippi, University, MS 38677, USA.
authors.forename: Daniel G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Cox
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacognosy, Pharmacology, Chemistry and Biochemistry and Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy, The University of Mississippi, University, MS 38677, USA.
authors.forename: Joonseok
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Oh
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacognosy, Pharmacology, Chemistry and Biochemistry and Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy, The University of Mississippi, University, MS 38677, USA.
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Keasling
authors.affiliation: R&D Division, Bruker BioSpin, 15 Fortune Drive Billerica, MA 01821, USA.
authors.forename: Kim L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Colson
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacognosy, Pharmacology, Chemistry and Biochemistry and Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy, The University of Mississippi, University, MS 38677, USA. Electronic address: mthamann@olemiss.edu.
authors.forename: Mark T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Hamann
keywords: Diagnostic biomarker; Integrated approach; NMR; PCA; Plant metabolomics; Targeted metabolomics