MS has evolved as a critical component in metabolomics, which seeks to answer biological questions through large-scale qualitative and quantitative analyses of the metabolome. MSbased metabolomics techniques offer an excellent combination of sensitivity and selectivity, and they have become an indispensable platform in biology and metabolomics. In this minireview, various MS technologies used in metabolomics are briefly discussed, and future needs are suggested.Metabolomics is idealized as the large-scale, qualitative, and quantitative study of all metabolites in a given biological system. Unlike transcripts and proteins, the molecular identity of metabolites cannot be deduced from genomic information. Thus, the identification and quantification of metabolites must rely on sophisticated instrumentation such as MS, NMR spectroscopy, and laser-induced fluorescence detection. Each of these technologies has its own unique advantages and disadvantages. Optimal selection of a particular technology depends on the goals of the study and is usually a compromise among sensitivity, selectivity, and speed.NMR is highly selective and non-destructive and is generally accepted as the gold standard in metabolite structural elucidation, but it suffers from relatively lower sensitivity. Laser-induced fluorescence is one of the most sensitive techniques, but it lacks the chemical selectivity that is critical in structural identification. In contrast, MS offers a good combination of sensitivity and selectivity. Modern MS provides highly specific chemical information that is directly related to the chemical structure such as accurate mass, isotope distribution patterns for elemental formula determination, and characteristic fragment ions for structural elucidation or identification via spectral matching to authentic compound data. Moreover, the high sensitivity of MS allows detection and measurement of picomole to femtomole levels of many primary and secondary metabolites. These unique advantages make MS an important tool in metabolomics (1, 2).Modern MS offers an array of technologies that differ in operational principles and performance. Variations include ionization technique, mass analyzer technology, resolving power, and mass accuracy. The most common ionization techniques in metabolomics include electron ionization, electrospray ionization (ESI), 2 and atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI). Other ionization techniques such as chemical ionization, MALDI, and, more recently, desorption ESI (DESI) (3) and extractive ESI (EESI) (4) have also been used. Mass analyzers with different resolving powers have also been used in metabolomics. These include ultrahigh and high resolution MS such as Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance MS (FT-ICR-MS), orbitrap MS, and multipass TOF-MS. However, lower resolution instruments such as ion traps (both linear and three-dimensional quadrupoles) and single quadrupoles are utilized by many. Each of these mass analyzers has its own advantage and limitation. Selection of a specific MS pl...