Proteomics is the large-scale study of proteins. The proteome is the entire set of proteins produced or modified by an organism or system. Proteomics enables the identification of ever-increasing numbers of proteins. This varies with time and distinct requirements, or stresses, that a cell or organism undergoes. This field is involved in identifying protein levels, modifications, and interactions at the level of genome. Proteomics is an interdisciplinary domain that has benefitted greatly from the genetic information of various genome projects, including the Human Genome Project Protein-protein interactions can be studied through phage display, classical yeast two hybrid, affinity purification, and ChiP-Seq. The majority of proteins are regulated through post-translational modifications, such as phosphorylation, acetylation, ubiquitination, nitrosylation, and glycosylation. These modifications are involved in maintaining cellular structure and function. Mass spectroscopy based techniques are being used to analyze the global proteomic changes and quantifying the post translational modifications. Proteomics generally refers to the large-scale experimental analysis of proteins and proteomes, but often refers specifically to protein purification and mass spectrometry.
Techniques
- Antibody-based methods. Techniques such as ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) and western blotting rely on the availability of antibodies targeted toward specific proteins or epitopes to identify proteins and quantify their expression levels.
- Gel-based methods.
- Chromatography-based methods.
Mass spectrometry with LC–MS-MS and MALDI-TOF/TOF being widely used equipment is the central among current proteomics. However, utilization of proteomics facilities including the software for equipment, databases and the requirement of skilled personnel substantially increase the costs, therefore limit their wider use especially in the developing world.
applications
Proteomics-based technologies are utilized in various capacities for different research settings such as detection of various diagnostic markers, candidates for vaccine production, understanding pathogenicity mechanisms, alteration of expression patterns in response to different signals and interpretation of functional protein pathways in different diseases. Proteomics is practically intricate because it includes the analysis and categorization of overall protein signatures of a genome. Furthermore, the proteome is highly dynamic because of complex regulatory systems that control the expression levels of proteins. Proteomics is crucial for early disease diagnosis, prognosis and to monitor the disease development. Furthermore, it also has a vital role in drug development as target molecules. Proteomics is one of the most significant methodology to comprehend the gene function although, it is much more complex compared with genomic.
