I am wondering how metatranscriptomics and metaproteomics work together to find evidence for soil microbial community functioning (e.g. decomposition/nitrogen cycling), and how they compare to enzyme assays? Specifically I am curious as to why metatranscriptomics might be used when metaproteomics has the data about the actual proteins transcribed? The papers I'm finding more or less discuss using meta-omics all together to identify microbes, but I'm more interested in bridging the gaps between potential hypothesized function & more empirical evidence of activity...

So ultimately I'm wondering how do the -omics compare to enzyme activity assays? What should be considered when deciding which methods to use to look at microbial function, e.g. carbon uptake? Is one procedure far more costly or less reliable than another?

Looking for links to journal article reviews that hit on these questions, or from your own experience. I haven't found any article that is explicit in comparing drawbacks between all methods. I have read the Jansson & Hofmockel 2019 paper many times and I am still a little lost on the pros and cons of methods for connecting soil microbial taxa to function. I know there has been pushback at scientists leaning heavily on hypothesized and potential functions of soil microbes solely based on -omics, or functional annotation, so I wanted to learn more about the next steps for experimental design. Again, feel free to just link papers! I appreciate your time.