Plant Metabolism is probably something that most people do not have a working knowledge of. So what is it?
Plant metabolism has to do with the chemicals that plants are making, as well as, breaking down throughout their lives. Plants are stationary, meaning that when something bad happens, such as drought, they need to depend on themselves to survive.
Nitrogen is the most important chemical when it comes to plant growth. Most of the soil around the world has a low level of nitrogen in them. This makes it important to understand how we can better help the plant get as much nitrogen as they can from the soil. Metabolite profiling gives a better understanding of gene function in plants. A way to understand that is that two plants with different genes might react differently to a given situation which is what shows up in metabolite testing. Through these tests you can see which specific plants are better at gathering nitrogen and in turn you can start to make the changes that are required to help the plant.
Overall, plant metabolism is a complicated topic, but if you break it down you can see that it comes down to what chemicals a plant will use throughout its life.
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