ABSTRACT
The genomic revolution of the last 20 years has launched the biosciences into a new frontier. For scientists working on many organisms, the availability of a genome sequence has dramatically accelerated research. The effects have been profound: Genetic engineering is now standard laboratory practice; evolutionary biologists can trace entire genomes; and genetic risk factors have been defi ned for many human conditions. However, our rapidly accelerating ability to collect and assemble DNA sequence information has greatly outpaced our ability to assign biological meaning to it. This imbalance creates a need for high-throughput methods aimed at developing leads to gene function: phenomic technologies. Phenomic technologies seek to associate DNA sequences with phenotypes in a high-throughput manner to gain a functional understanding of genetic code. In general, phenomic technologies require: (1) a method to create genomic variation; (2) an ability to adjust the experimental environment, and (3) a technique for observing and recording the phenotypes of interest (Fig. 1).
