Omics Technologies and Molecular Farming: Applications and Challenges

“Omics” is a broad area mainly deals with the analysis of biological information obtained from the genome, transcriptome, proteome, and metabolome profiling, together with other relevant –omes. Various omic technologies are focused to unravel the putative markers, overall gene, protein, and metabolite expression in a very functionally relevant context, and provide insights into the molecular basis of different fundamental processes involved in growth and development of plants. New gene(s) discovery and their expression profiling provide ample opportunity for breeders to introgress economically important traits from new sources. The omic technologies have been found useful in decoding the complexity of abiotic and biotic stresses through genome sequences, cell and tissue specific transcripts, protein and metabolite profiles and their dynamic changes, and interactions. Plant molecular farming (PMF) is an emerging branch of plant biotechnology, wherein large quantities of industrial proteins and recombinant pharmaceuticals produced by engineered plants. Many biopharmaceuticals like monoclonal antibodies, recombinant vaccine antigens, and other commercially viable proteins are produced in plants, a number of which are in the clinical and pre-clinical stages.