Associations Between Central and Secondary Metabolites in Rice Seedling Development.

Secondary metabolites provide diverse functions to plants. Many secondary metabolites arise through metabolic off-shoots of central metabolism. Central metabolites change with development and in response to environment, so these factors can also alter secondary metabolite composition in a way that may or may not reflect the satisfaction of functions provided by the secondary metabolites to the plants. The metabolome was sampled during development and at different tissue locations during rice seedling development. Patterns among metabolites were evaluated using multivariate statistical methods, with emphasis on discerning relationships among individual and sets of secondary metabolites with individual and sets of central metabolites.