Abstract: The present invention relates to a method for determining the correlation between the metabolite profiles (MPs) and the expression or potential for expression of a trait of a group of plants, and further to a method for determining or predicting the expression of a trait of a plant by taking advantage of the determined MP of said plant and a determined correlation between the MPs and the expression or potential for the expression of said trait in a group of plants. Particularly, the present invention relates to a method for determining or predicting the biomass production/growth rate of a plant by taking advantage of the determined MP of said plant and a determined correlation between the MPs and the biomass production/growth rate or the potential for biomass production/growth rate of a group of plants.

Abstract: Described is a method for determining the function of a gene. This method involves determining the amount of transcript for each of a set of candidate genes in samples taken from different phenotypic and/or genotypic states of an organism and determining the amount of each of a plurality of metabolites in different samples taken from the same states as those mentioned above. Subsequently, the data obtained is analyzed by suitable mathematical methods in order to identify a transcript and metabolites which correlate in the different states, thereby identifying a transcript corresponding to a gene which influences the amount of metabolites in the organism. Furthermore described is a method for identifying a gene which is capable of modifying the amount of a metabolite in an organism and to a method for identifying a metabolite which is capable of modifying the amount of a transcript in an organism. Likewise, uses of the genes and metabolites identified in the aforementioned methods are described.