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Metabolome is the total collection of metabolites present within an organism, a cell, or a tissue. Genome is the total collection of DNA in the cell of an organism. Similarly, the transcriptome is the total RNA and proteome is the total protein of a cell or tissue. While the genome is the same for all cells and tissues of an organism, the transcriptome, proteome, and metabolome are different from cell to cell or tissue to tissue. They are also different from one physiological state to another.
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Metabolome is the sum of all metabolites (small molecules). The suffix “ome” means the sum of all. Hence, as stated by John Brown above, the genome is the sum of all genetic material (all DNA), transcriptome is the sum of all transcripts (all RNA), and proteome is the sum of all proteins.
And yes, the metabolome differs from one tissue to another, and from one condition to another. It can form a fingerprint for a specific tissue under specific conditions.
The suffix “omics” means the science of studying the specific set. Therefore, metabolomics is the science of studying tissue metabolites under different conditions. It is important for studying tissue biology, and it has various useful applications. For example, it helps in studying mechanisms of disease development and devising treatment strategies.
For more on “omics”, you can visit the Wikipedia site.
The Glossary of this site gives a brief description of some of these terms.
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