11.1: ‘Omics Technologies

The complete set of DNA within an organism is called its genome. Genomics is therefore the large-scale description, using techniques of molecular biology of many genes or even whole genomes at once. This type of research is facilitated by technologies that increase throughput (i.e. rate of analysis), and decrease cost. The –omics suffix has been used to indicate high-throughput analysis of many types of molecules, including transcripts (transcriptomics), proteins (proteomics), and the products of enzymatic reactions, or metabolites (metabolomics; Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\)). Interpretation of the large data sets generated by –omics research depends on a combination of computational, biological, and statistical knowledge provided by experts in bioinformatics. Attempts to combine information from different types of –‘omics studies is sometimes called systems biology.

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