Applications of mass spectrometry in metabolomic studies of animal model and invertebrate systems

Metabolomics provides rich datasets for systems biology. Mass spectrometric (MS) techniques are rapidly gaining in importance for untargeted metabolic profiling. In this review, we survey the various techniques for sample preparation and analysis relating to the various MS techniques and illustrate the potential of these techniques for both observing complete metabolomes and detecting changes in the metabolism resulting from genetic mutation of other perturbations. The use of some of these techniques in the study of model organisms including rodent and various invertebrate models is described. The invertebrate systems are of particular interest since such organisms have valuable mutant resources, such as RNAi panels directed against nearly all the genes in the genome. The demonstration that they are readily compatible with metabolomic approaches is particularly important for systems approaches to metabolic pathways.