title: Proteomics: bases for protein complexity understanding.
abstract: In the post genomic era we became aware that the genomic sequence and protein functions cannot be correlated. One gene can encode multiple protein functions mainly because of mRNA splice variants, post translational modifications (PTM) and moonlighting functions. To study the whole population of proteins present in a cell to a specific time point and under defined conditions it is necessary to investigate the proteome. Comprehensive analysis of the proteome requires the use of emerging high technologies because of the complexity and wide dynamic range of protein concentrations. Proteomics provides the tools to study protein identification and quantitation, protein-protein interactions, protein modifications and localization. The most widespread strategy for studying global protein expression employs two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2D-PAGE) allowing thousands of proteins to be resolved and their expression quantified. Liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) has emerged as a high throughput technique for protein identification and characterization because of its high sensitivity, precision and accuracy. LC-MS/MS is well suited for accurate quantitation of protein expression levels, post-translational modifications and comparative and absolute quantitative analysis of peptides. Bioinformatic tools are required to elaborate the growing number of proteomic data. Here, we give an overview of the current status of the wide range of technologies that define and characterize the modern proteomics.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Proteomics and Analytical Techniques, Research Laboratories, Fondazione di Ricerca e Cura Giovanni Paolo II, Catholic University, Campobasso, Italy. domenico.rotilio@rm.unicatt.it
authors.forename: Domenico
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rotilio
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Della Corte
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: D'Imperio
authors.forename: Walter
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Coletta
authors.forename: Simone
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Marcone
authors.forename: Cristian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Silvestri
authors.forename: Lucia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Giordano
authors.forename: Michela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Di Michele
authors.forename: Maria Benedetta
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Donati
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002853:Chromatography, Liquid; D019295:Computational Biology; D015180:Electrophoresis, Gel, Two-Dimensional; D006801:Humans; D007553:Isotope Labeling; D013058:Mass Spectrometry; D011499:Protein Processing, Post-Translational; D011506:Proteins / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D040901:Proteomics / Q000379:methods; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry; D057825:Two-Dimensional Difference Gel Electrophoresis
chemical_list: D011506:Proteins