Proteomics - Use Of Proteomics

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Proteins play the most important part in creating cells and tissues, and directing their functions. It should be possible to identify the protein signatures of various diseases, especially at their onset to help in diagnosis and treatment. Protein signatures are particularly valuable in drug design and clinical trials. Scientists also have more basic interests in proteome, and proteomics is used to study bacteria, plant, and animal cells in order to understand how the proteins change during a particular treatment or phase of growth.

Future application of proteomic analysis is highly dependent on further technological developments to streamline analysis of clinical samples. The most obvious challenge for proteomics is developing protein chips similar to DNA microarrays. Also, new methods are required for studying the protein-protein interactions and large protein complexes.

Resources

Books

Palzkill, Timothy. Proteomics. Boston: Kluver Academic Publishers, 2002.

Pennington, S.R., and M. J. Dunn, eds. Proteomics: From Protein Sequence to Function. Oxford: Bios and New York: Springer, 2001.

Westermeier, Reiner, and Tom Naven. Proteomics in Practice. Berlin: Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH, 2002.

Periodicals

Dove, Alan. "Proteomics: Translating Genomics into Products?" Nature Biotechnology (March 1999): 233–236.

Kumar, Anuj, and Michael Snyder. "Protein Complexes Take the Bait." Nature (January 2002): 123–124.

Rappsilber, Juri, and Matthias Mann. "What Does it Mean to Identify a Protein in Proteomics?" Trends in Biochemical Sciences (February 2002): 74–78.

Organizations

Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, CMU. Rue Michel-Servet 1, 1211 Genève 4, Switzerland, 41–22–7025858. <http://www.expasy.ch>..

Other

Protein Prospector [cited November 16, 2002]. <http://prospector.ucsf.edu>.

Human Proteome Organization [cited November 16, 2002]. <http://www.hupo.org/.>.

Agnieszka Lichanska

KEY TERMS

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Chimeric protein: —Protein containing at least two different parts derived from two separate genes, but expressed as a single protein.
DNA-binding domain: —Part of a protein that interacts with DNA.
Electrophoresis: —Separation of nucleic acid or protein molecules in an electric field.
Peptides: —Low molecular weight molecules formed from two or more amino acids linked together by a peptide bond.
Polyacrylamide: —Branched polymer of acrylamide, used to make gels for electrophoresis.
Reporter gene: —Gene that encodes easily assayable product (protein), for example luciferase, green fluorescent protein, or chloramphenical acetyltransferase (CAT). It is fused to a promoter region of gene that is being tested.
Transcriptional activator: —A protein that induces transcription of a gene if stimulated, contains a DNA-binding domain and an activator domain