User:Genometrics

Genometrics is, quite literally, the measurement of genes.

The term was coined in a commentary in Genetic Epidemiology [Elston and Wilson 1990] where they noted that there had been a paradyme shift in the approach used to perform statistical genetic analysis. Prior to the advent of DNA polymorhisms, the focus of statistical genetic analysis was on the disease or trait being studied. They termed this a phenometric approach.

With the advent of DNA polymorphisms Elston and Wilson noted that, rather than focusing on the phenotype, a more tractable approach was to focus on the genetic markers, which could be more accurately measured and then use differences in the markers to investigate variation in the phenotype. They termed this the genometric approach, and it has now become the basis for much of the statistical genetic analysis being done today.

The term has gained in popularity, first as part of a computer simulation package (The Genometrics Analysis Simulation Program or G.A.S.P. (insert link here), and more recently as a term that describes a biostatistical approach to the measurement of genes. Williams and Torrens [2001] note that "the new term genometrics has been applied to the discovery of a gene or genes that are responsible for a trait and to defining precisely the trait controlled by each gene in complex multifactorial illnesses"

The term comparative genometricshas taken on a somewhat broader meaning involving the biostatistical comparison of entire genomes.