The primary aim of "omic" technologies is the nontargeted identification of all gene products (transcripts, proteins, and metabolites) present in a specific biological sample. By their nature, these technologies reveal unexpected properties of biological systems. A second and more challenging aspect of omic technologies is the refined analysis of quantitative dynamics in biological systems. For metabolomics, gas and liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry are well suited for coping with high sample numbers in reliable measurement times with respect to both technical accuracy and the identification and quantitation of small-molecular-weight metabolites. This potential is a prerequisite for the analysis of dynamic systems. Thus, metabolomics is a key technology for systems biology. The aim of this review is to (a) provide an in-depth overview about metabolomic technology, (b) explore how metabolomic networks can be connected to the underlying reaction pathway structure, and (c) discuss the need to investigate integrative biochemical networks.

中文翻译：

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代谢组学系统生物学

“组学”技术的主要目标是对特定生物样品中存在的所有基因产物（转录物、蛋白质和代谢物）进行非靶向鉴定。就其性质而言，这些技术揭示了生物系统意想不到的特性。组学技术的第二个也是更具挑战性的方面是对生物系统中定量动力学的精细分析。对于代谢组学，气相色谱和液相色谱与质谱联用非常适合在可靠的测量时间内处理大量样品，无论是技术准确性还是小分子量代谢物的鉴定和定量。这种潜力是分析动态系统的先决条件。因此，代谢组学是系统生物学的一项关键技术。