ObjectivesPlant ionomics is defined as a discipline for studying inorganic components in plants. It is a new research field in plant nutrition and environmental biology based on the approach development of high-throughput analytical technology, such as ICP-MS, its combination with bioinformatics, functional genomics, and mathematical statistics which study the mechanisms of uptake and accumulation of mineral elements and heavy metals. Hence, summarizing the methods and applications of ionomic study is important to understand the element cycling in plant and ecosystem.
Main advancesIn this paper, the latest results and trends of the ionomic research were reviewed. Firstly, the concepts of ionome and inomics were introduced, and then the history, the related research institutions and their main research fields were summarized. Thirdly, ionomic data trasformation and analysis methods were discussed, and the applicaions of ionomic study were reviewed. At last, the paper especially focused on the elemental balances in ecosystem, relationships among the plant ionome and environmental fators, food safety and screening of hyperaccumulator, and mechamism of elemental uptake and transfer in plant from ionomic and genomic aspects.
ProspectsThe further research is proposed as follows: 1) The ionome of cereal crop, cash crop and fruit tree from the aspects of plant nutrition and food safety. 2) Elemental flow and cycling in the system such as soil-microorganism-plant, producer-consumer-decomposer from the aspects of system biology and biogeochemical cycle. 3) Interactions between genome, proteome, metabolism, and ionome from interdisciplinary view.
DownLoad: