If you know how plants, in general, make the chemicals they need to survive, you can, in theory, predict how they perform this trick for about any substance plants can make. Dutch scientists made a new digital tool called MEANtools that helps uncover how plants produce their natural substances, reducing laboratory work significantly.
Plants produce a wide range of special chemicals, known as specialized metabolites. These compounds protect plants from diseases, attract pollinating insects, and help them survive challenging environments. Yet, in many cases, how plants actually create these substances remains a mystery.
That’s where MEANtools (Metabolite Anticipation tools) steps in. This intelligent software analyzes vast amounts of data—like a plant’s DNA, gene activity, and chemical profiles—to uncover clues about how these metabolites are made. The best part? It doesn’t rely on prior assumptions or preset targets, discovering patterns independently. This means less time in the lab, as scientists can focus their experiments guided by MEANtools’ insights, according to a press release.
To put the tool to the test, researchers applied it to tomato data. MEANtools successfully identified most of the steps that tomatoes use to produce falcarindiol, a natural compound believed to help defend against fungi. Even more exciting, it revealed new potential pathways that scientists hadn’t discovered before.
“This project is a big leap forward in how we can use modern data to uncover the secrets of plant chemistry,” said Kumar Saurabh Singh, lead author of the study, who works at Maastricht University’s Brightlands Future Farming Institute in Venlo. “MEANtools can be used for more than just plants, it could help us understand complex biology in other organisms too.”
The software is freely available for anyone to use, and it’s expected to help scientists working on plant research, drug discovery, and biology in general. MEANtools is a joint effort by scientists from Maastricht University, Wageningen University, and Utrecht University.
