This is an NSF-funded multi-institutional project that is developing metabolomics as a functional genomics tool for elucidating the functions of Arabidopsis genes. The Consortium has established metabolomic platforms that detect approximately 1,800 metabolites, of which 900 are chemically defined. Initial studies have focused on investigating the robustness of the Arabidopsis metabolome, and defining the conditions that minimize the environmental and developmental effects on the metabolome. Subsequently, the consortium is applying metabolomic analyses on Arabidopsis mutant lines in genes whose functions are currently not fully understood. The consortium is profiling the metabolome of specific T-DNA knockout alleles for these targeted genes, some of which have been generated by independent NSF 2010 projects. These data will be integrated with phenotypic data and data concerning protein function, transcription and other studies to help users generate hypotheses concerning the functions of the targeted genes.