Current Scope of Bioinformatics in Omics era

The accurate definition of bioinformatics has always been a matter of debate. Although in narrow definition which limits analysis of genome but now a days widely accepted including analysis of nucleic acid, protein sequence, structure, expression and networked function.

Bioinformatics can be generally classified as two sub fields:
1.Development of database using data produced from experimental studies and development of tools to analyse these data.

2.The application of these tools and databases in generating biological knowledge to better understand living systems.

These two sub fields are complementary to each other.

Development of tools and database
The development of database using software to create database to store and retrieve data in organized way.

The design of the tools involves writing software for sequence, structural and functional assessment as well as the design and curation of biological databases.

Bioinformatics analysis
Generally bioinformatics analysis divided into three types:
1.Sequence analysis
2.Structure analysis
3.Function analysis

Sequence analysis
In this type of analysis which include physio chemical characterization, amino acid composition,sequence alignment- analysing two sequences- pairwise alignment, more than two sequences- multiple alignment, motif, pattern discovery, gene, promoter finding etc

Structure analysis
Structural analyses include protein and nucleic acid structure analysis, comparison, classification, and prediction.

Function analysis
The functional analyses include gene expression profiling, protein– protein interaction prediction, protein sub cellular localization prediction, metabolic pathway reconstruction, and simulation.

The three aspects of bioinformatics analysis are not isolated but often interact to produce integrated results. For example, protein structure prediction depends on sequence alignment data; clustering of gene expression profiles requires the use of phylogenetic tree construction methods derived in sequence analysis. Sequence-based promoter prediction is related to functional analysis of co-expressed genes. Gene annotation involves a number of activities, which include distinction between coding and non coding sequences, identification of translated protein sequences, and determination of the gene’s evolutionary relationship with other known genes; prediction of its cellular functions employs tools from all three groups of the analyses (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Sequence-Structure-Function Paradigm.

Wider scope of bioinformatics in omics era
The recent game-changing advances in DNA sequencing technology have revolutionized the sciences field, featuring unprecedented innovations in sequencing scale and throughput, and implementations of various novel applications beyond genome sequencing. The rapidly developing omics fields with associated genome-scale resources treat each molecular network as an interlocked component. Bioinformatics has been crucial in every aspect of omics-based research to manage various types of genome-scale data sets effectively and extract valuable knowledge. Integration of accumulating omics outcomes will deepen and update our understanding and facilitate knowledge exchange with other model organisms (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Example of application of bioinformatics in omics field (modified from: Mochida, K., & Shinozaki, K, 2011)

References:
1.Mochida, K., & Shinozaki, K. (2011). Advances in omics and bioinformatics tools for systems analyses of plant functions. Plant & cell physiology, 52(12), 2017–2038.
2.Xiong, J. (2006). Essential bioinformatics. Cambridge University Press.