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Completing the Metabolome

Abstract

Peter L. Elkin, Mark S. Tuttle and Steven H. Brown

At the turn of the millennium, genomics was in full swing as scientists world-wide worked to sequence the human genome. During this time period, we were already aware that the sequenced genome did not tell the entire story. Scientists had begun to discuss functional genomics and metabolomics [1,2]. Of course we have long been aware of metabolic pathways. We have researched and taught pathways such as the Krebs Cycle for generations. In 1996 the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes [3] and Genomics (KEGG) published version 1.0 of their online compendium of pathways. KEGG has grown to approximately 165 metabolic pathways (Figure 1) out of a total of 425 metabolic, regulatory and signaling pathways [4]. Despite this progress, many researchers suspect that known pathways may not be completely understood and that additional metabolic pathways have yet to be discovered.