Skip to main content
ARS Home » Plains Area » Clay Center, Nebraska » U.S. Meat Animal Research Center » Livestock Bio-Systems » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #183448

Title: GENOMICS

Author
item Rohrer, Gary

Submitted to: Encyclopedia of Animal Science
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/4/2004
Publication Date: 1/4/2005
Citation: Rohrer, G.A. 2005. Genomics. Encyclopedia of Animal Science. Marcel Dekker, Inc., NY. Wilson G. Pond & Alan W. Bell (eds.) p. 469-471.

Interpretive Summary: Genomics is the science of taking a holistic approach to studying the genome. A useful analogy of genomics is that it is like looking at the entire forest, rather than individual trees. Genomics is more a thought process than a science and truly came to fruition when high throughput genetic technologies and powerful computers were developed. Typically, genomic approaches assumes that nothing about the genome is known a priori and requires the results of the previous experiments to drive the direction of future genetic research. The term genomics was coined by T. H. Roderick in 1986 when a journal by the same name was launched (McKusick, 1997). Three fields of genomic research described by McKusick (1997) are structural genomics, comparative genomics and functional genomics.

Technical Abstract: Genomics is the science of taking a holistic approach to studying the genome. A useful analogy of genomics is that it is like looking at the entire forest, rather than individual trees. Genomics is more a thought process than a science and truly came to fruition when high throughput genetic technologies and powerful computers were developed. Typically, genomic approaches assumes that nothing about the genome is known a priori and requires the results of the previous experiments to drive the direction of future genetic research. The term genomics was coined by T. H. Roderick in 1986 when a journal by the same name was launched (McKusick, 1997). Three fields of genomic research described by McKusick (1997) are structural genomics, comparative genomics and functional genomics.