Difference between Meta'omics and Multi'omics

Question

[dpc]

Hi there!!! I have a basic question which may seem silly to you. Forgive me for that Actually I don't know what does actually mean by metaomic study? I am familiar with the term multiomics, but metaomics seems a new term to me. Can anyone please help me clarifying the confusion? Thanks

[GenoMax]

Where did you see this referenced? A wild guess would be Meta'omics = Multi-omics study of metagenome

[dpc]

Hi genomax, thanks for the response. I have seen that in some articles and searching for more while understanding the meaning.

Found this article that states

A meta’omic study typically aims to identify a panel of microbial organisms, genes, variants, pathways, or metabolic functions characterizing the microbial community populating an uncultured sample.

If I download and use already submitted metagenome sequences by profiling and analyzing them with appropriate software to solve specific question, then, can I still say that I am doing metaomics study in my thesis?

Thanks

[krassowski.michal]

I wonder if "meta-analysis of metagenomes" would not be more appropriate in that case.

Answer 1

[krassowski.michal]

Based on our literature search from last year (GitHub, paper) I can say that the term "meta-omics" (and its variants) is not too frequently used in the context of integrative analysis of multiple different omics (like transcriptome + proteome + genome) - so it might often mean something different too. Let's look at the usage in PubMed abstracts:

19837627    s on metabolomics data management, normalization, meta-omics data analysis, and an integrative a...
24624120     high-resolution molecular approaches, so called “meta-omics”, are now allowing concrete linkage...
26315987    nd us through the application of high-resolution "meta-omics". Metaproteomics offers the ability...
28724401    l diversification within the lichen microbiota by meta-omics. \nRecent evidence of specific bact...
28744486    odontal ligament and alveolar bone. We employed a meta-omics approach that included microbial 16...
29157743     Next generation microbiological risk assessment meta-omics: The next need for integration. The dev
29427518    ast few years, the application of high-throughput meta-omics methods has provided great progress...
29656009    enomics, transcriptomics, proteomics metabolomics meta-omics and combined omics as powerful stra...
30285475    per reviews studies in which application of these meta-omics technologies has led to a better un...
30728080                                       An integrated meta-omics approach reveals substrates involved in
30945796    oding data sets were integrated in a multivariate meta-omics analysis (multi-block PLS-DA from t...
30992350    treatment was not modified based on the presented meta-omics results. The course of action of th...
31186307    niches of constituent populations, and functional meta-omics becomes a proxy to characterize the...
31796563    hanomassiliicoccaceae\nxoxF\nMethylobacter\nxoxF\nOur meta-omics data suggested that the \nMetha...
31803221    s, encompassing microbial communities, omics, and meta-omics as well as clinical or chemistry va...
31810497    ional and translational microbiome research using meta-omics approaches. The gut microbiome has ...
31884359    ion of antibiotic resistance genes: An integrated meta-omics study. Livestock manure is consider...
32047482    on that must be sifted through, particularly with meta-omics data. Software pipelines have been ...
32318338    of the microbiome in cancer is being recognized (\nmeta-omics\n\n        \n3.2. Data Management\...
32516966    Characterization. Recent advances in the field of meta-omics sciences and related bioinformatics...
32579720    s, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and meta-omics are reviewed. The ability to interp...

I would say that four different themes emerge:

1. Integrative analysis of multiple different omics where 1 sample = 1 organism, effectively a synonym for multi-omics. This mostly occurs in older studies (19837627) from time before multi-omics term became more popular. I would avoid such usage as it might be misleading.
2. Integrative analysis of multiple different omics where 1 sample = multiple taxa (like in metagenome). I initially thought that it would be common but after re-checking the papers "meta-omics" does not seem to be used to mean this at all. One close example is 30945796 which integrated metagenome and metabolome using a typical multi-omics method, but in context of metagenomic study ("multivariate meta-omics analysis"). In fact many studies doing so use "integrated meta-omics" (see point 4),
3. Meta-analysis of data from the same platform/omic but collected in different experiments where 1 sample = multiple taxa. For example, 30304367 describes a meta-analysis method for combining multiple transcriptomic datasets.
4. meta-omics used as a catch-all term for metagenomics, metaproteomics, metametabolomics etc as in:
   • 24624120 which also proposes to integrate metagenomes with metabolomics data,
   • 28724401 which analyses metagenome, metaproteome and metatranscriptome together,
   • 28744486 looks at metagenome and metametabolomics,
   • 26315987,
   • 29427518 (which refers to (2) as "multi meta-omics"),
   • 30285475 ("meta-omics technologies"),
   • 30992350,
   • 31796563,
   • 31810497 ("meta-omics techniques", (2) referred to as "integration of multiple meta-omics"),
   • 31884359 ((2) referred to as "integrated meta-omics")
   • 32047482 ("The integration of data sets generated in multi-omics research is by no means trivial [...], particularly with meta-omics data.")
   • 32318338 ("the role of the microbiome in cancer is being recognized (170); the integration of metagenomic, and perhaps meta-omics data (171), could provide key insights")
   • 32516966
   • 32579720
   • 29157743 is a review/call to action of multi-omics in context of metagenomics, metaproteomics, metametabolomics, etc,
   • 30728080 integrated metagenomic, metatranscriptomic and targeted metabolomics datasets (2 is "integrated meta-omics")
   • 31186307 discusses integration of metabolomics and metagenomics (2 is "integrated meta-omics")
   • 31803221 describes a framework for integration of longitudinal microbiome datasets with other types of data