Various bioinformatic software tools have been developed to analyse different types of -omic data. Check each specific field for details.
Genomics is an interdisciplinary field of molecular biology focusing on the DNA content of living organisms. High-throughput sequencing technologies and bioinformatics have transformed genome analysis by mapping and decrypting coding and non-coding DNA sequences, their evolution and inter-relationships.
Epigenomics is the study of the complete set of epigenetic modifications on the genetic material of a cell, known as the epigenome. The field is analogous to genomics and proteomics, which are the study of the genome and proteome of a cell. Epigenetic modifications are reversible modifications on a cell’s DNA or histones that affect gene expression without altering the DNA sequence. Epigenomic maintenance is a continuous process and plays an important role in stability of eukaryotic genomes by taking part in crucial biological mechanisms like DNA repair. Plant flavones are said to be inhibiting epigenomic marks that cause cancers. Two of the most characterized epigenetic modifications are DNA methylation and histone modification. Epigenetic modifications play an important role in gene expression and regulation, and are involved in numerous cellular processes such as in differentiation/development and tumorigenesis. The study of epigenetics on a global level has been made possible only recently through the adaptation of genomic high-throughput assays.
The transcriptome is the set of all RNA molecules in one cell or a population of cells. It is sometimes used to refer to all RNAs, or just mRNA, depending on the particular experiment. It differs from the exome in that it includes only those RNA molecules found in a specified cell population, and usually includes the amount or concentration of each RNA molecule in addition to the molecular identities.
The proteome is the entire set of proteins that are produced or modified by an organism or system. This varies with time and distinct requirements, or stresses, that a cell or organism undergoes. Proteomics is an interdisciplinary domain that has benefitted greatly from the genetic information of the Human Genome Project; it also covers emerging scientific research and the exploration of proteomes from the overall level of intracellular protein composition, structure, and its own unique activity patterns. It is an important component of functional genomics.
Metabolomics is the scientific study of chemical processes involving metabolites, the small molelcule intermediates and products of metabolism. Specifically, metabolomics is the “systematic study of the unique chemical fingerprints that specific cellular processes leave behind”, the study of their small-molecule metabolite profiles.
Metabolomics can generally be defined as the study of global metabolite profiles in a system (cell, tissue or organism) under a given set of conditions. References
Phenomics is an area of biology concerned with the measurement of phenomes (a phenome is the set of physical and biochemical traits belonging to a given organism) as they change in response to genetic mutation and environmental influences. It is used in functional genomics, pharmaceutical research, metabolic engineering and increasingly in phylogenetics.