The precursors of the present
The Dictionnary of Genomics, Transcriptomics and Proteomics
have been on the market for about 19 years, starting out with a single slim book entitled "Dictionary of Gene Technology", that tried to tackle the then-immense masses of 4,000 terms of this more technical branch of Molecular Biology. Ever since then and in 4-5 year intervals, the amount of knowledge roughly doubled, finally leading to three volumes in 2009, each of them out-sizing the first book by volume and numbers of terms. Around 12,000 technical terms of the omics era accumulated by then, and this development is by no means over. As a result, in the present four volumes of the Dictionary, again bigger in size and volume, another 3,000 terms have been added, amassing around 15,000 terms, to cope with the racy development of genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics. To keep pace with the expected future growth of knowledge and to respect the current tendency towards electronic media, the present four-volume edition will be the last printed version, and from now on only be electronically available.
Notwithstanding this adaptive change, the author nevertheless felt that the share of proteomics had to be increased, with all those newly discovered chromatin proteins, components of many nuclear multi-protein complexes, RNA-binding proteins, generally nuclear proteins with all their variants and modifications in mind. Additionally, the growing importance of RNAs had to be appreciated (with an immense repertoire of novel non-coding RNAs, small RNAs, regulatory RNAs, or generally, RNAs transcribed from the non-coding genome). As explained in prefaces of previous editions, new terms will soon be created, new techniques will be introduced, and this dictionary inevitably will have omissions. Though I have striven to avoid errors, ambiguities and misinterpretations, certain inadequacies will be discovered, and I apologize for them at this point. It only remains to ask Confucius for a good closing word:"Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance" and 温故知新 "Review the old and you will know the new".

Instructions for Users XI

Greek Alphabet and Roman Numerals XIII

Abbreviations and Symbols XV

A to Z 1-2600

Appendix 1 Units and Conversion Factors 2601

Appendix 2 Restriction Endonucleases 2605

Appendix 3 Databases 2613

Appendix 4 Scientific Journals 2629

Appendix 5 Acknowledgements 2641

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