Integrated studies on plant biology using multiparallel techniques

Plant biology, especially the fields of molecular genetics and molecular ph ysiology, is currently undergoing a change in paradigm from 'vertical' anal ysis of the role(s) of one or a few genes to 'horizontal' holistic approach es, studying the function of many or even all of the genes of an organism s imultaneously. This change is leading us beyond genomes to transcriptomes, proteomes and metabalomes, and to an understanding of life at an entirely n ew level. Profiling strategies are putting this change into effect through the generation of large amounts of data, requiring that current bioinformat ic approaches adapt and grow in order to make the most of these data.