The term ‘omics’ is a collective term for the different fields of biological study that are on the molecular level. Some of those fields include genomics, the study of the genome, and proteomics, the study of proteins. All omics aim to gain a greater understanding of cells, tissues, organs, and the organism as a whole. There are various fields of omics that are used in microbiome research to investigate the nature and interactions in a microbiome, and even provide information of the microbiome’s composition.
Genomics is commonly used to investigate the genes present in an organism’s genome. Similarly, metagenomics, an emerging omics field related to genomics, identifies the genes present in an environmental sample. This information can be used to determine the microorganisms that are present in a sample. For example, genotyping was done by Bruce et al (2000) to identify the different genotypes of a single Plasmodium species present in an individual infected with Plasmodium. Furthermore, by identifying which genes are present in an organism or an environmental sample, researchers can predict the potential role played by certain microbes in a microbiome. For example, genes involved in the digestion of blood and carbohydrates were identified in the mosquito gut microbiota through the use of metagenomic tools (Kukutla et al 2014). This information was used by Romali and Gredrin (2018) to propose that because of the presence of these genes in the mosquito gut microbiota, the microbiota could potentially influence the ability of Plasmodium species to colonise and survive in the mosquitos.
Omics fields such as proteomics (the study of proteins) and glycomics (the study of carbohydrates) can be used to investigate the molecules produced by an organism, and the impact of those molecules on other organisms. For example, glycomics and immunoproteomics, an area of proteomics that looks at proteins of the immune system, was used by Yilmaz et al (2014) to study how certain microorganisms in the human gut microbiota can induce human immune protection against Plasmodium. This involved studying the antibodies produced against α-gal, a glycan present on the surface of certain microorganisms of the human gut microbiota. Furthermore, glycomics confirmed that α-gal is present on the surface of Plasmodium sporozoites, which in turn led researchers to investigate the capacity of the antibodies to target α-gal on the Plasmodium sporozoites in order to fight against a Plasmodium infection.
The study of metabolites is called ‘metabolomics’, and is often used in microbiome research to investigate the different metabolites produced by the microbes of a microbiota and their effect on other microbial species in the microbiota. Within a microbial population, some microbial species may use, or even depend on, the metabolites produced by another microorganism. In contrast, some microorganisms may produce metabolites that have an antimicrobial effect to prevent the growth of other microbial species. This was discussed by Romoli and Gendrin (2018), where metabolites produced by certain species of a mosquito’s gut microbiota inhibit Plasmodium species from colonising the mosquito gut.
Bruce MC, Donnelly CA, Alpers MP, Galinski MR, Barnwell JW, Walliker D, Day KP, 2000, ‘Cross-species interactions between malaria parasites in humans.’, Science, 287(5454), pp 845-8, viewed on 6th August 2019, <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10657296>
Kukutla P, Lindberg BG, Pei D, Rayl M, Yu W, Steritz M, Faye I, Xu J, 2014, ‘Insights from the Genome Annotation of Elizabethkingia anophelis from the Malaria Vector Anopheles gambiae’, Plos One, 9(5), viewed on 2nd September 2019, <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24842809>
Romoli O, Gendrin M, 2018, ‘The Tripartite interactions between the mosquito, its microbiota and Plasmodium’, Parasites & Vectors, 11(1), viewed on 6th August 2019, <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29558973>
Yilmaz B, Portugal S, Tran TM, Gozzelino R1, Ramos S, Gomes J, Regalado A, Cowan PJ, d’Apice AJ, Chong AS, Doumbo OK, Traore B, Crompton PD, Silveira H, Soares MP, 2014, ‘Gut microbiota elicits a protective immune response against malaria transmission’, Cell, 159(6), viewed on 6th August 2019, <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25480293>
Interactions Between Plasmodium, Mosquitoes and Human 