Regulation of Plant Primary Metabolism – How Results From Novel Technologies Are Extending Our Understanding From Classical Targeted Approaches

Abstract

Abstract The post-genomic era is characterized by a range of high throughput profiling methods capable of broadly characterizing gene expression levels, protein, and metabolite abundances. Application of these methods, enzyme profiling, and more recently, protein-metabolite interactions and flux analysis have alongside modeling approaches allowed us to refine our understanding of the regulation of metabolism even in the case of the canonical pathways of primary plant metabolism. Here we review recent insights obtained by using such methods in the context of our previous knowledge. In doing so, we hope to highlight the effectiveness of these methods and postulate that their application to less well-studied metabolic pathways will likely allow the elucidation of the hitherto unknown mechanism of metabolic regulation.