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Development of unified data models and data pre-processing strategies and the generation of meaningful, standardised statistical analyses of metabolome variability in crop plants

Project Code: G03012

31/12/2008

Aberystwyth University
Draper, J

A pilot study in the G02 programme project G02006 showed that differences in data structure confounded statistical analyses aimed at producing a common understanding of metabolite baseline data. The G02 programme involved twelve collaborating sites and six projects which produced metabolomics data for potato, wheat, barley, Arabidopsis and tomato. In the emerging field of metabolomics, no widely applied standards for experimental procedure are available and a range of analytical equipment has been used. Consequently, the large amount of data collected is not necessarily directly comparable.

This project aimed to turn these disparate data, developed on different instruments using a range of standard operating procedures (SOPs), into a resource that would provide a meaningful and durable description of GM food/feed crops for any future safety assessment.

This study concentrated on developing a standardised data format for each analysis method. It would then be possible to convert existing data into data tables that can be compared meaningfully in order to develop an understanding of the baseline metabolite content and variability in traditional crop varieties and cultivars. This resource would further aid safety assessments of any proposed GM crops. Additionally, it would provide a starting point for any assessment of quality, provenance, agronomic regime or post-harvest treatment associated with a food raw material.

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