List of omics topics in biology - Definition and Overview

This is a navigational and informational list.

The terms 'Ome' and 'Omics' are derivations of the suffix -ome, which has been appended to a variety of previously existing biological terms to create names for fields of endeavor that are either speculative or have some tangible meaning in particular contexts. Some Omics are well established while others are speculative. The scientific community embraces or rejects each new term depending upon their continued usage or avoidance of the term in editorial and peer-reviewed literature. For futher discussion of the origins of the various Omics as a group, see -omics.

In the list, the first term refers to a biological entity, the second to the expansion of the term to cover a set of such objects in a single physiological compartment (typically but not always a single cell), the third to the field of endeavor devoted to the study of the collection of objects and their physical and/or functional interrelations. If a term is italicized, this indicates that the usage of the term is not widespread, though it may still appear in literature or scientific discourse. This last embellishment is not meant to be a judgement on the legitimacy of a term.

• gene => genome => genomics
• transcript => transcriptome => transcriptomics
• protein => proteome => proteomics
• kinase (typically protein kinase => kinome => kinomics
• lipid => lipome => lipomics
• protein-bound carbohydrate moiety => glycome => glycobiology (glycomics typically not in use)
• metabolism => metabolome => metabolomics
• protein-protein interaction => interactome => interactomics

• interacting biological entities => interactome => systems biology (seldom used in this sense)

• phenotype => phenome => phenomics
• regulation => regulome => regulomics
• functional entity => functome => functomics
• expressed entity => expressome => expressomics
• ecosystem => ecome => ecomics
• ecology => biome => biomics (distinct from ecosystem)

Not directly related to biological entities or processes is

• text => textome => textomics