The English-language neologism omics informally refers to a field of study in biology ending in -omics, such as genomics, proteomics or metabolomics. The related suffix -ome is used to address the objects of study of such fields, such as the genome, proteome or metabolome respectively. Omics aims at the collective characterization and quantification of pools of biological molecules that translate into the structure, function, and dynamics of an organism or organisms.

Functional genomics aims at identifying the functions of as many genes as possible of a given organism. It combines different -omics techniques such as transcriptomics and proteomics with saturated mutant collections.[1]

The suffix -ome as used in molecular biology refers to a totality of some sort; it is an example of a "neo-suffix" formed by abstraction from various Greek terms in -, a sequence that does not form an identifiable suffix in Greek.

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) distinguishes three different fields of application for the -ome suffix:

The -ome suffix originated as a variant of -oma, and became productive in the last quarter of the 19th century. It originally appeared in terms like sclerome[2] or rhizome.[3] All of these terms derive from Greek words in -,[4] a sequence that is not a single suffix, but analyzable as --, the -- belonging to the word stem (usually a verb) and the - being a genuine Greek suffix forming abstract nouns.

The OED suggests that its third definition originated as a back-formation from mitome,[5] Early attestations include biome (1916)[6] and genome (first coined as German Genom in 1920[7]).[8]

The association with chromosome in molecular biology is by false etymology. The word chromosome derives from the Greek stems ()- "colour" and ()- "body".[8] While "body" genuinely contains the - suffix, the preceding -- is not a stem-forming suffix but part of the word's root. Because genome refers to the complete genetic makeup of an organism, a neo-suffix -ome suggested itself as referring to "wholeness" or "completion".[9]

Bioinformaticians and molecular biologists figured amongst the first scientists to apply the "-ome" suffix widely. Early advocates included bioinformaticians in Cambridge, UK, where there were many early bioinformatics labs such as the MRC centre, Sanger centre, and EBI (European Bioinformatics Institute). For example, the MRC centre carried out the first genome and proteome projects.

Lipidome is the entire complement of cellular lipids, including the modifications made to a particular set of lipids, produced by an organism or system.

Proteome is the entire complement of proteins, including the modifications made to a particular set of proteins, produced by an organism or system.

Glycomics is the comprehensive study of the glycome i.e. sugars and carbohydrates.

Foodomics was defined in 2009 as "a discipline that studies the Food and Nutrition domains through the application and integration of advanced -omics technologies to improve consumer's well-being, health, and knowledge"

Transcriptome is the set of all RNA molecules, including mRNA, rRNA, tRNA, and other non-coding RNA, produced in one or a population of cells.

Inspired by foundational questions in evolutionary biology, a Harvard team around Jean-Baptiste Michel and Erez Lieberman Aiden created the American neologism culturomics for the application of big data collection and analysis to cultural studies.

The word comic does not use the "omics" suffix; it derives from Greek ()- (merriment) + -()- (an adjectival suffix), rather than presenting a truncation of ()-.

Similarly, the word economy is assembled from Greek ()- (household) + ()- (law or custom), and economic(s) from ()- + ()- + -()-. The suffix -omics is sometimes used to create names for schools of economics, such as Reaganomics.

Many omes beyond the original genome have become useful and have been widely adopted by research scientists. Proteomics has become well-established as a term for studying proteins at a large scale. "Omes" can provide an easy shorthand to encapsulate a field; for example, an interactomics study is clearly recognisable as relating to large-scale analyses of gene-gene, protein-protein, or protein-ligand interactions. Researchers are rapidly taking up omes and omics, as shown by the explosion of the use of these terms in PubMed since the mid '90s.[15]

Read this article:
Omics - Wikipedia