Endocrinology: Advances through omics and related technologies

- Application of omics technologies is rapidly increasing.
- Integrative systems approaches are revolutionizing biological systems studies.
- Transgenic organisms allow manipulation of complex regulatory networks.

The rapid development of new omics technologies to measure changes at genetic, transcriptomic, proteomic, and metabolomics levels together with the evolution of methods to analyze and integrate the data at a systems level are revolutionizing the study of biological processes. Here we discuss how new approaches using omics technologies have expanded our knowledge especially in nontraditional models. Our increasing knowledge of these interactions and evolutionary pathway conservation facilitates the use of nontraditional species, both invertebrate and vertebrate, as new model species for biological and endocrinology research. The increasing availability of technology to create organisms overexpressing key genes in endocrine function allows manipulation of complex regulatory networks such as growth hormone (GH) in transgenic fish where disregulation of GH production to produce larger fish has also permitted exploration of the role that GH plays in testis development, suggesting that it does so through interactions with insulin-like growth factors. The availability of omics tools to monitor changes at nearly any level in any organism, manipulate gene expression and behavior, and integrate data across biological levels, provides novel opportunities to explore endocrine function across many species and understand the complex roles that key genes play in different aspects of the endocrine function.