Merchant Andrew, Richter Andreas A
Faculty of Agriculture Food and Natural Resources, University of Sydney, Suite 401 Biomedical Building, 1 Central Avenue, Australian Technology Park, Everleigh, NSW 2015, Australia.
Department of Chemical Ecology and Ecosystem Research, University of Vienna. Althanstrasse 14 1090 Vienna, Austria.
Funct Plant Biol. 2011 Dec;38(12):934-940. doi: 10.1071/FP11105.
Characterising changes in the plant metabolome is central to understanding adaptive responses to environmental change. New and improved quantitative and qualitative technologies have enabled the characterisation of plant metabolism at unprecedented scales and precision. New frontiers have therefore emerged for improving our understanding of the adaptability of plant metabolic networks. However, despite these advances, outcomes for 'in field' plant management remain largely based on subsets of plant metabolism due to broader scale network complexity. The synthesis and occurrence of polyols offer considerable promise as bioindicators of plant health and biomarkers for use as selective traits for plant improvement. Polyols are polyohydroxy compounds that may be either open chain (acyclic) alditols or cyclic compounds (cyclohexan-hexols), usually termed cyclitols or inositols. Here we highlight the functions of polyols in stress acclimation or amelioration and as sinks for carbon and indicate their potential for the development of integrated measures of plant function using new technologies in 21st century plant breeding.
表征植物代谢组的变化是理解对环境变化的适应性反应的核心。新的和改进的定量与定性技术已能够以前所未有的规模和精度表征植物代谢。因此，在增进我们对植物代谢网络适应性的理解方面出现了新的前沿领域。然而，尽管有这些进展，但由于更广泛的网络复杂性，“田间”植物管理的成果在很大程度上仍基于植物代谢的子集。多元醇的合成与存在作为植物健康的生物指标以及用作植物改良选择性状的生物标志物具有很大潜力。多元醇是多羟基化合物，它们可以是开链（无环）糖醇或环状化合物（环己六醇），通常称为环醇或肌醇。在这里，我们强调了多元醇在胁迫适应或缓解中的功能以及作为碳的汇，并指出了它们在21世纪植物育种中利用新技术开发植物功能综合测量方法的潜力。
