Application of functional ‘Omics’ in environmental stress physiology: insights, limitations, and future challenges

• Omic technologies have revolutionised environmental physiology approach.
• Transcriptomic, proteomic and metabolomic screens dominate literature.
• As yet studies provide limited insight regarding stress response mechanisms.
• Tissue-specific and time series sampling across multiple omic platforms is needed.
• Recent advances and remaining knowledge gaps are set out.

Omic technologies have revolutionised how environmental physiologists investigate stress response pathways. To date, however, omic screens typically constitute simple presence/absence correlations, and fall short of explaining mechanism. Disentangling function necessitates hypothesis-driven manipulation of selected molecular signals, and a systems level view will only come from more detailed tissue-specific and time series sampling. The increasing accessibility of omic applications means that species can be selected based on Krogh principles, but focus also needs to be given to core models where multi-platform approaches can be combined to provide a deeper understanding. This review highlights recent technological and intellectual advances in the application of omics to understanding insect stress adaptation, and sets out how to address remaining knowledge gaps.