Omics of oil biodegradation

Omics studies (metagenomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, proteomics) for marine oil biodegradation research increased rapidly after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon (DWH) accident in the Gulf of Mexico. Since then, it has been demonstrated how omics techniques can be used to model and better understand pre-spill environments, monitoring during a spill and post-spill. Data that encompass everything from the ecosystem to the molecular level are needed for understanding the complicated process of petroleum biodegradation in marine environments. Consequently, using omics for monitoring oil in the ocean will help in developing more robust systems models and would make responses to spills much more defensible in terms of risks to the environment and people. Omics is enabling for a Systems Biology approach to oil spills which allows a search for hidden interactions and attributes at different trophic levels because 'the whole is greater than the sum of its parts'.