The era of 'omics unlimited

Abstract

Determining the primary sequences of informational macromolecules is no longer a limiting factor for our ability to completely understand the biological functioning of cells and organisms. Similarly, our understanding of transcriptional regulation (transcriptomics) has been greatly enhanced by the availability of microarrays. Our next hurdle is to learn the biochemical functions of all the gene products (proteomics) and the totality of all the interactions among them (interactomics). Using traditional biochemical methods, this will take a very long time. More efficient methods are needed to address these questions, or at least to suggest possible candidates for further testing. High-resolution imaging using molecule-specific tags will reveal details of cellular architecture that are expected to provide additional insights and clues about the interactions and functions of many gene products. Computer modeling of macromolecular structures and functional systems will be of key importance. We present here a brief historical and futuristic perspective of genomics and some of its other 'omics offshoots in the post-genomic era.

Integrating multiple ‘omics’ analysis for microbial biology: application and methodologies

“…In the past decade, significant efforts in improving analytical technologies pertaining to measuring mRNA, proteins and metabolites have been made. These efforts have led to the generation of several new 'omics' research fields: transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, interactomics and so on (Fiehn, 2001;Singh & Nagaraj, 2006;Lin & Qian, 2007;Kandpal et al, 2009;Ishii & Tomita, 2009;Tang et al, 2009a) (Fig. 1).…”

Monochromosomal Hybrids and Chromosome Transfer: A Functional Approach for Gene Identification

“…In the post-genomic era, however, the focus of geneticists and molecular biologists is shifting from genes to proteins, an area termed "proteomics" (75). In addition to numerous other applications of monochromosomal hybrids, we propose a novel set of experiments aimed at isolating cell surface proteins encoded by different human chromosomes.…”

Herbal Therapy: Can Omics Technology Create Order from Chaos?

“…Accordingly, the omics technology has now availed a timely, overall (zoom-out) picture of multiple events occurring in a cell or tissue. Conceivably, therefore, a great deal of overlap and interplay may well exist between omics and "systems biology", a newer integrative approach with the outreaching aims of unraveling and delineating the entire (holistic) properties of cells, tissues, or organisms that function as a biological system [5,6].…”