What the transcriptome does not tell - proteomics and metabolomics are closer to the plants' patho-phenotype

Abstract

The proteome and metabolome of the plant provide a wealth of additional information on plant-microbe interactions since they not only represent additional levels of regulation, but often they harbor the end products of regulatory processes. Proteomics has contributed to our understanding of plant-microbe research by increasing the spatial resolution of the analysis within the infected tissue, because components of the basal immunity were uncovered in the apoplast. Metabolomics has developed into a powerful approach to discover the role of small molecules during plant-microbe interactions in non-model plants since it does not depend on the availability of genome or transcriptome data. Moreover, novel molecules involved in systemic acquired resistance and the precursors for the formation of molecules that provide physical barriers to prevent spreading of pathogens were identified.