Development of multivariate statistical tools and bioinformatics aiming the metabolomic study of Medicago truncatula ecotypes using GC and UHPLC-MS

• Grant number: 13/01542-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: August 01, 2013
• End date: July 31, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Chemistry - Organic Chemistry
• Principal Investigator: Ian Castro-Gamboa
• Grantee: Alan Cesar Pilon
• Supervisor: Lloyd W. Sumner
• Host Institution: Instituto de Química (IQ). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Araraquara. Araraquara , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 10/17935-4 - Development of analytical methods of dereplication by NMR and multivaried analysis of metabolomic profile from Solanaceae species with bioactive potential, BP.DR

Abstract

The technological advances of last decades allowed the application of systemic studies into biological sciences, embracing the diverse objects of analysis into a dynamic and multifactorial context. Nowadays, this idea has supported main approaches into the "omics" sciences including functional genomics. In general, this approach aims the understanding of the organisms correlating different levels of molecular complexity, using genes as well as phenotypic characteristics. In natural products chemistry the study of a biological phenomena is mainly based on metabolomics studies (identification and quantification of the whole metabolic profile) and, it is performed using hyphenated techniques: separation (HPLC and GC) and identification (MS and NMR). The produced results are treated by means of statistical tools, allowing the grouping and separation of data via spectral features and thus, facilitating the understanding of the multifactorial biological phenomena. However, the interpretation of these data is not trivial and the construction of databases is critical to assist the interpretation of the generated information. In order to assist this demand, this project aims to develop tools using bioinformatics and chemometrics, associated with the compilation and analysis of high complexity data from M. truncatula and related species of Solanaceae. (AU)