Operomics: integrated genomic and proteomic profiling of cells and tissues

In the post-genome era, technologies are becoming available that allow the profiling of tissues and cell populations at multiple levels including genomic (DNA and RNA), proteomic (proteins and peptides) and post-proteomic (eg metabolomic). Operomics refers to the molecular analysis of tissues and cells at the three levels that are connected through the coding process - namely, DNA, RNA and protein. The premise is that no one level or type of analysis fully captures gene expression and that functional changes at the proteome level cannot be simply predicted from analyses at the DNA or RNA levels. An important determinant that weakens a direct link between RNA and protein levels is translational control that differentially regulates mRNA translation. In this paper, the approaches for genomic and proteomic profiling and the contribution of translational control are reviewed.