Dr. Kyle Frischkorn: Transcriptomics vs. Proteomics

The Bioinformatics and Beyond Podcast

Dr. Kyle Frischkorn explains the interplay between different sample analysis methods such as transcriptomics and proteomics. He starts by explaining some of the basics of both transcriptomics and proteomics and gives a refresher on the central dogma. This explanation covers aspects of these methods such as a high level description of what they are, how they work, and what data you get from them. He also mentions more detailed considerations such as difficulties with mapping RNA back to genomes, the power of transcriptomes and metatranscriptomes, and different types of RNA sequencing that can be performed.

We then move on to discuss Dr. Frischkorn's recent oceanography study. He starts by explaining the motivation behind this study. He explains the importance of understanding oceanography and the role of the ocean as a primary source for all chemistry that takes place on the planet, how the fixation of nitrogen is such an important part of the planet's chemistry, and how there are very few organisms that are able to turn nitrogen gas, which is highly abundant in the atmosphere, into biologically available nitrogen. He explains a further motivation which was to help resolve some of the unknown regarding if it is better to look at, for instance, transcriptomics or proteomics to perform these kinds of studies. We learn about how transcription and the presence of proteins might not necessarily always be totally correlated with one another. Finally, we do a deeper dive into the methodology of the study and learn how the study was performed, and conclude with some of the results and conclusions of what was found. We hear about the harmony and discord between transcriptomics and proteomics, and the "choreography" of the "dance" between these two methods. Dr. Frischkorn also explains a final, third piece of data that can be gathered, which is enzyme activity assays. The study discussed can be found at https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2019.00330/full