Phenomics

Phenomics is a field of study concerned with the characterization of phenotypes as a whole (phenome), which are characteristics of organisms that arise via the interaction of the genome with the environment.

The word was coined by Steven A. Garan, Director of the Aging Research Centre (ARC) at a guest lecture he gave at the University of Waterloo in 1996.

The term was introduced later, independently, by Niculescu and Kelsoe in 2002, in relationship to the empirical study of psychiatric phenotypes in an integrative fashion with genetics and genomics. Niculescu and colleagues subsequently published a landmark paper in 2006 describing a new empirical quantitative approach for phenomics analysis, termed PhenoChipping, that readily lends itself to integration with genomics.

The term is used by Australian Phenomics Facility, where mice are bred to show the effects that different genes have on their development. The Consortium for Neuropsychiatric Phenomics at UCLA was established under the aegis of the NIH Roadmap Initiative in 2007 to advance understanding of neuropsychiatric phenotypes on a genome-wide scale.

The Australian Plant Phenomics Facility () was established in 2008. Headquartered at the Waite Campus of the University of Adelaide, and with nodes in Adelaide and Canberra (CSIRO Plant Industry and ANU), it will provide high throughput imaging using visible, near infra-red, far infra-red and fluorescence imaging, and will enable the development of capabilities and facilities to provide a comprehensive, continuous analysis of plant growth and performance using modern technologies. The Facility will relieve the ‘phenotyping bottleneck’ which has, until now, limited our ability to capitalize on substantial investments already made in plant functional genomics and modern breeding technologies.

Important articles

Kelsoe, J.R. and Niculescu, A.B. (2002). Finding Genes for Bipolar Disorder in the Functional Genomics Era: From Convergent Functional Genomics to Phenomics and Back. CNS Spectrums 2002; 7: 215-226. PMID: 15211285
Freimer, N. and Sabatti, C. (2003). The human phenome project. Nature Genetics, 34, 15-21. PMID 12721547
Scriver, C. R. (2004). "After the genome--the phenome?" J Inherit Metab Dis 27(3): 305-17.
Bogue, M. A. and S. C. Grubb (2004). "The Mouse Phenome Project." Genetica 122(1): 71-4.
Garan, S. A., et al (2003). "Phenomics: a new direction for the study of neuroendocrine aging", Experimental Gerontology, Vol 38 (1-2), 218.
Niculescu, A. B., et al.(2006).PhenoChipping of psychotic disorders: A novel approach for deconstructing and quantitating psychiatric phenotypes. Am J Med Genet B Neuropsychiatr Genet. 141(6):653-662. PMID: 16838358