What does the field of proteomics study?
1 Answer
Proteomics is a rapidly growing field of molecular biology that is completely concerned with the systematic high through put approach to protein expression analysis of a cell or an organism.
Explanation:
A proteome is the entire set of proteins that are produced or modified by an organism or system.
It is an interdisciplinary domain that has benefitted greatly from the genetic information of the Human Genome Project. It is an important component of functional genomics. In many ways proteomics runs parallel to genomics. The starting point of genomics is a gene in order to make inferences about its products (i.e. proteins), whereas proteomics begins with the functionally modified protein and works back to the gene responsible for its production.
Proteomics is a complex field of study as the proteome differs from cell to cell and from time to time. Distinct genes are expressed in different cell types, which means that even the basic set of proteins that are produced in a cell needs to be identified. Not only does the translation from mRNA causes the difference but many proteins are also subjected to a wide variety of chemical modifications after translation, which are critical to the proteins function.
Proteomics is used to the investigate :
1) when and where proteins are expressed.
2) rates of protein production, degradation and steady state abundance
3) protein modification
4) movement of proteins between sub cellular compartments.
5) involvement of proteins in metabolic pathways
6) protein - protein interactions.
It is also being used in the identification of potential new drugs for the treatment of diseases. This relies on proteomics and genomics to identify proteins associated with a disease, which computer software can then use as targets for new drugs.
The fundamental goal of proteomics is not only to pinpoint all the proteins in a cell, but also to generate a complete 3 - D map of the cell indicating their exact locations.
Proteomics generally refers to the large scale experimental analysis of proteins. It is often specifically used for protein purification and mass spectrometry.
