Research article
GC/MS based metabolomics: development of a data mining system for metabolite identification by using soft independent modeling of class analogy (SIMCA)
1 Department of Bioengineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, 2-1 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan
2 Department of Biophysics and Biochemistry, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-003, Japan
BMC Bioinformatics 2011, 12:131 doi:10.1186/1471-2105-12-131
Published: 4 May 2011Abstract
Background
The goal of metabolomics analyses is a comprehensive and systematic understanding of all metabolites in biological samples. Many useful platforms have been developed to achieve this goal. Gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC/MS) is a well-established analytical method in metabolomics study, and 200 to 500 peaks are routinely observed with one biological sample. However, only ~100 metabolites can be identified, and the remaining peaks are left as "unknowns".
Result
We present an algorithm that acquires more extensive metabolite information. Pearson's product-moment correlation coefficient and the Soft Independent Modeling of Class Analogy (SIMCA) method were combined to automatically identify and annotate unknown peaks, which tend to be missed in routine studies that employ manual processing.
Conclusions
Our data mining system can offer a wealth of metabolite information quickly and easily, and it provides new insights, particularly into food quality evaluation and prediction.
