In biochemistry, the metallome is the distribution of
metalions in a
cellular compartment. The term was coined in analogy with
proteome as[1]metallomics is the study of metallome: the "comprehensive analysis of the entirety of metal and metalloid species within a cell or tissue type".[2] Therefore, metallomics can be considered a branch of
metabolomics,[citation needed] even though the metals are not typically considered as
metabolites.
An alternative definition of "metallomes" as
metalloproteins or any other metal-containing
biomolecules, and "metallomics" as a study of such biomolecules.[3]
Metallointeractome
In the study of metallomes the
transcriptome, proteome and the
metabolome constitutes the whole metallome. A study of the metallome is done to arrive at the metallointeractome.
Metallotranscriptome
The metallotranscriptome[4] can be defined as the map of the entire transcriptome in the presence of biologically or environmentally relevant concentrations of an essential or toxic metal, respectively. The metallometabolome constitutes the complete pool of small metabolites in a cell at any given time. This gives rise to the whole metallointeractome and knowledge of this is important in comparative metallomics dealing with toxicity and drug discovery.[4]
Szpunar, J. (2005). "Advances in analytical methodology for bioinorganic speciation analysis: metallomics, metalloproteomics and heteroatom-tagged proteomics and metabolomics". The Analyst. 130 (4): 442–465.
Bibcode:
2005Ana...130..442S.
doi:
10.1039/b418265k.
PMID15776152.