The English-language neologism omics informally refers to a field of study in biology ending in -omics, such as genomics or proteomics. The related suffix -ome is used to address the objects of study of such fields, such as the genome or proteome, respectively.
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 -ωμα, a sequence that does not form an identifiable suffix in Greek.
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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 was originally found in terms like sclerome[2] or rhizome.[2] All of these are terms derived from Greek words in -ωμα,[2] a sequence that is not a single suffix, but analyzable as -ω-μα, the -ω- belonging to the word stem, usually a verb, and the -μα being a genuine Greek suffix forming abstract nouns.
OED suggests that the third definition originated as a back-formation from mitome,[2] Early attestations include biome (1916)[3] and genome (first coined as German Genom in 1920[4]).[5]
The association with chromosome in molecular biology is by false etymology. The word chromosome derives from the Greek stems χρωμ(ατ)- "colour" and σωμ(ατ)- "body".[5] While σωμα "body" genuinely contains the -μα suffix, the preceding -ω- 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".[6]
Bioinformaticians and molecular biologists figured amongst the first scientists to start to apply the "-ome" suffix widely. Some early advocates were 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 is where the first genome and proteome projects were carried out.
The word “comic” does not use the "omics" suffix; it derives from Greek “κωμ(ο)-” (merriment) + “-ικ(ο)-” (an adjectival suffix), rather than presenting a truncation of “σωμ(ατ)-”.
Similarly, the word “economy” is assembled from Greek “οικ(ο)-” (household) + “νομ(ο)-” (law or custom), and “economic(s)” from “οικ(ο)-” + “νομ(ο)-” + “-ικ(ο)-”. The suffix -omics is sometimes used to create portmanteau words to refer to 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 short-hand 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.[7]