ABSTRACT
Within the last decade, there has been rapid advancement in expression profiling of all organisms, including plants. The study of transcripts, primarily those of mRNA origin, has become one of many ‘omics’ characters to appear on the stage of molecular biology. Transcriptomics, the specific discipline, which aims to characterize organisms’ transcripts, is heavily involved in understanding the patterns of gene expression. These patterns are variable under certain environmental conditions, for example, during different life stages, or within a particular tissue. Research has come to show that although housekeeping genes may be constitutively expressed, other genes are not necessarily expressed all of the time (e.g., stress-response genes). While one might only focus on an organism’s mRNA transcripts, other factors (promoters, cis-and transacting elements, transcription factors, enhancers, siRNA etc.) are necessarily included in the broader definition of transcriptomics.
