Metals are utilized through the three domains of life. Except for potassium, calcium, sodium and magnesium, all essential metals are trace elements. They play important roles in a variety of biological processes, but are needed in very small quantities. Previously, much effort has been focused on experimental studies of metal utilization pathways and metalloproteins. However, with the accumulation of large amount of data from genomics and proteomics studies, it becomes necessary and possible for computational and systematic analyses of the metallomes (or metalloproteomes) to be carried on, which would provide new insights into metal utilization, metabolization and biological functions. In this review, we introduce recent advances in bioinformatics studies on several metals, such as copper, molybdenum, nickel, cobalt, zinc, iron and the metalloid selenium. Furthermore, we also discuss the major techniques and recent advances of high-throughput ionomics studies. We hope that this review may provide a foundation for investigating the fundamental questions and future directions of metal research.

Contents
1 Introduction
2 Copper
3 Molybdenum
4 Nickel and cobalt
5 Zinc
6 Iron
7 Selenium
8 Ionomics
9 Conclusions and outlook