Transcriptomic

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. The field that investigates the array and expression levels of RNA transcripts produced by a genome to understand biological processes
2. A comprehensive analysis focusing on the diversity and quantity of RNA molecules to reveal insights into gene activity and regulation
3. A branch of science that examines the complete set of RNA transcripts in a cell or organism to elucidate gene expression patterns and biological functions

Etymology: "Transcriptomic" is a plain technical formation: it combines "transcriptome," the complete set of RNA transcripts produced by a cell or organism, with the adjectival suffix "-ic," which turns a noun into a description of something relating to it. The word therefore means something like "relating to the transcriptome," and it is used mostly in genomics and molecular biology, where researchers describe data, profiles or analyses drawn from the full range of RNA molecules in a sample. The noun it grows from is itself a modern coinage built on the same model as "genome." Biologists formed "transcriptome" by analogy with that older term, using the element "transcript," a copy of a stretch of DNA made as RNA, plus the "-ome" ending that marks a whole collective set of something. The adjective followed naturally once the noun had become established, so the sense of "transcriptomic" is simply that of its parts put together.