MassTRIX

MassTRIX annotates high-precision mass spectrometry (MS) metabolite data by integrating genomic information to place identified compounds into KEGG pathway context and relate them to potential enzymatic activities.

Key Features:

• Hypothesis-driven annotation: Integrates genomic information with high-precision MS data to reduce ambiguity in metabolite annotation.
• KEGG pathway mapping: Presents identified chemical compounds on KEGG pathway maps using differentially colored objects.
• Gene transcription integration: Incorporates gene transcription data as an additional layer to inform metabolite interpretation.
• Comparative gene complements: Accounts for variations in gene complements, for example differences between bacterial strains, when annotating metabolites.
• Linking metabolites to enzymatic capacity: Visualizes metabolites in relation to potential and actual enzymatic activities encoded in the genome.
• Organism scope: Applicable to metabolites detected from diverse prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms.

Scientific Applications:

• Metabolite annotation in metabolomics: Annotates metabolite signals from high-precision MS data within a biological context.
• Pathway-centered interpretation: Places metabolites into KEGG pathways to interpret metabolic state relative to pathway topology.
• Integration with transcriptomics: Relates metabolite occurrence to gene transcription data to explore functional activity.
• Comparative metabolic analysis: Compares metabolic pathway representation and capacity across strains or species via gene complement differences.

Methodology:

Maps identified chemical compounds from high-precision MS data onto KEGG pathway maps and overlays genomic information, including gene transcription data and variations in gene complements (e.g., differences between bacterial strains), using differential coloring to present compounds in their genomic context.