The Biological Hierarchy, Time, and Temporal 'Omics in Evolutionary Biology: A Perspective

Area of Science:

• Evolutionary biology
• Genomics
• Systems biology

Background:

• Omics data (genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics) have transformed biological research.
• These data enable detailed study of processes driving biological organization and phenotypic variation across timescales.
• Integrating omics data offers complementary insights into molecular and phenotypic variation for evolutionary biology.

Purpose of the Study:

• To demonstrate the utility of integrating diverse sequencing data across biological levels.
• To introduce temporal omics as a framework for studying the dynamics of biological processes.
• To highlight the impact of temporal sampling regimes on biological inference.

Main Methods:

• Review of omics applications across biological levels.
• Demonstration of integrated multi-omics studies.
• Discussion of temporal sampling strategies in omics research.

Main Results:

• Integrating omics data provides a more comprehensive view of evolutionary biology.
• Temporal omics enables the study of dynamic biological processes.
• Sampling regimes significantly influence the ability to infer environmental drivers.

Conclusions:

• Temporal multi-omics offers a powerful framework for understanding biological variation and evolution.
• Careful consideration of temporal sampling is crucial for robust biological inference.
• Future advancements will extend temporal omics across species and timescales.