Network-based strategies in metabolomics data analysis and interpretation: from molecular networking to biological interpretation

Introduction: Metabolomics has become a crucial part of systems biology; however, data analysis is stilloften undertaken in a reductionist way focusing on changes in individual metabolites. Whilst suchapproaches indeed provide relevant insights into the metabolic phenotype of an organism, the intricatenature of metabolic relationships may be better explored when considering the whole system.Areas covered: This review highlights multiple network strategies that can be applied for metabolo-mics data analysis from different perspectives including: association networks based on quantitativeinformation, mass spectra similarity networks to assist metabolite annotation and biochemical networksfor systematic data interpretation. We also highlight some relevant insights into metabolic organizationobtained through the exploration of such approaches.Expert opinion: Network based analysis is an established method that allows the identification of non-intuitive metabolic relationships as well as the identification of unknown compounds in mass spectro-metry. Additionally, the representation of data from metabolomics within the context of metabolicnetworks is intuitive and allows for the use of statistical analysis that can better summarize relevantmetabolic changes from a systematic perspective.Metabolomics; network; correlatio