Phenomics

Phenomics is the systematic study of traits that make up a phenotype. It was coined by UC Berkeley and LBNL scientist Steven A. Garan. As such, it is a transdisciplinary area of research that involves biology, data sciences, engineering and other fields. Phenomics is concerned with the measurement of the phenotype where a phenome is a set of traits (physical and biochemical traits) that can be produced by a given organism over the course of development and in response to genetic mutation and environmental influences. The relationship between phenotype and genotype enables researchers to understand and study pleiotropy. Phenomics concepts are used in functional genomics, pharmaceutical research, metabolic engineering, agricultural research, and increasingly in phylogenetics. Technical challenges involve improving, both qualitatively and quantitatively, the capacity to measure phenomes. In plant sciences, phenomics research occurs in both field and controlled environments. Field phenomics encompasses the measurement of phenotypes that occur in both cultivated and natural conditions, whereas controlled environment phenomics research involves the use of glass houses, growth chambers, and other systems where growth conditions can be manipulated. The University of Arizona's Field Scanner in Maricopa, Arizona is a platform developed to measure field phenotypes, and the Maize Genomes to Fields Initiative is an example of a large-scale, distributed field phenomics project across many environments and years. Controlled environment systems include the Enviratron at Iowa State University, the Plant Cultivation Hall under construction at IPK, and platforms at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and elsewhere. Phenomics profiling of cells is emerging as a powerful technology to study cellular responses to genetic or chemical perturbations. High content-microscopy, in combination with fluorescent probes, can be used for capturing rich phenotypic information.