Advanced Omics Techniques for Understanding Cochlear Genome, Epigenome, and Transcriptome in Health and Disease

Abstract

Advanced genomics, transcriptomics, and epigenomics techniques are providing unprecedented insights into the understanding of the molecular underpinnings of the central nervous system, including the neuro-sensory cochlea of the inner ear. Here, we report for the first time a comprehensive and updated overview of the most advanced omics techniques for the study of nucleic acids and their applications in cochlear research. We describe the available in vitro and in vivo models for hearing research and the principles of genomics, transcriptomics, and epigenomics, alongside their most advanced technologies (like single-cell omics and spatial omics), which allow for the investigation of the molecular events that occur at a single-cell resolution while retaining the spatial information.

Transcriptomic Analysis Identifies Candidate Genes for Differential Expression duringXenopus laevisInner Ear Development

“…High-throughput methods, such as microarrays and RNA-Seq, can quantify the expression levels of thousands of transcripts simultaneously, permitting a system-level analysis of transcriptomes. The use of global profiling technologies enables the discovery of expression profiles that correlate with biological processes, which can result in the generation of hypotheses regarding the genes involved in the maintenance of the phenotype in question (McDermott et al 2007; Friis et al 2011; Darville and Sokolowski, 2013; Gu et al, 2016; Baxi et al, 2023; Tisi et al, 2023).…”