Systems biology

Abstract

All living organisms are made up of cells - cells, that belong to either the prokaryote or the eukaryote family, depending on their type. Eukaryotic cells differ from prokaryotic cells in that they have a cell nucleus. The bacterial world is comprised of microorganisms with a prokaryotic cell type, whereas multicellular organisms like humans, animals and plants are made up of eukaryotic cells. If we want to understand the life processes of an organism, we have to analyse its constituent cells at the genome, transcriptome, proteome and metabolome levels. The genome comprises all the genes in a cell, while the transcriptome comprises all the transcripts (messenger RNAs), the proteome all the proteins, and the metabolome all the metabolites (metabolic products). The transcriptome, proteome and metabolome can all vary greatly depending on the condition of the cell. There are a number of inter-relationships between the genome, transcriptome, proteome and metabolome levels. The genome of an organism contains a large number of genes. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.