Genomic Biology

The finding (Kan and Dozy, 1978) of genomic information has prompted the develop-and elaboration into doctrine (Botstein et al., 1980) of general experimental methods that allow quick DNA polymorphisms (then, restriction fragment linkage tests of the hypotheses it suggests).

Abstract

Genomics is changing our understanding of biology. At present, the greatest impact of genomic research has come from DNA sequencing projects. These have revealed the genetic complement of yeast, worms, and flies, and more than 20 species of bacteria and provided access to the encoded functions of these organisms. Analysis of genomes has also provided insights into polymorphisms within species, protein interaction, and evolution. Other genomic (defined as high-throughput, not necessarily hypothesis–dependent) methods that examine mRNA and proteins will offer insights into mRNA expression, protein expression, protein localization, and protein interactions and may cast light on the flow of information within signaling pathways. The volume of genomic information has prompted the development of general experimental methods that allow quick tests of the hypotheses it suggests. Insights from genomic biology will greatly affect medicine and agriculture. Genomics is also changing the biological community. At its beginning, biology involved observing nature and experimenting on isolated parts of it. Genomic research now generates new types of complex observational data derived from nature. For now, a time when much of the data are closely linked to observation and when some researchers have ceased to perform hypotheses-driven research, researchers still need to practice critical thought. In the future, to make sense of the data, genomic researchers will need to partly recapitulate the development of biology itself, by devising new ways to handle and isolate appropriate subsets of the information and new heuristics for reasoning from that information and suggesting further experiment. Genomics may also lead to a more radical development. As the genomic inventories approach closure, the mass of this data will spur attempts to devise computational frameworks that integrate biological knowledge about cellular components and attempt to predict system behavior. During the early twenty-first century, this more predictive biology will have positive consequences for health and agriculture and will speed the development of a design-based biological engineering of cells and organisms to perform new functions.