Editorial overview: Physiology and metabolism: Plant metabolism: globules to global, modules to models

In the 1980s, the first genes encoding plant enzymes were cloned and plant genetic transformation was born. With the new century, knockout technology was established and the Arabidopsis genome sequence was published. In the last decade, the discipline of plant genomics has expanded rapidly. These developments promised a quantum leap forward in understanding plant biology. In some areas this has undoubtedly been the case, but what about in metabolism and related physiology? This issue of Current Opinion in Plant Biology presents a spectrum of topics from subcellular to global levels. It aims to provide an update on some mainstream topics and some that are less well known. It hopefully provides not only an update, but also an opportunity to reflect on the achievements of the last 35 years and to anticipate the challenges and possibilities in the next 35 years to 2050.