Current Proteomics - Volume 4, Issue 3, 2007

Proteomics is a still-evolving combination of technologies to describe and characterize all expressed proteins in a biological system. Because of upper limits on mass detection of mass spectrometers, the bottom-up approach is most widely employed in which tryptic peptides are quantified and identified from complex protein mixtures. Protein identification from tandem mass spectra is still a challenge in proteomics. Two ap Read More

Disease and drug-related alterations in the brain membrane proteome are of particular interest for investigations into neuropsychiatric disorders. Despite decades of research into neurotransmitters and their receptors, our understanding of complex neuropsychiatric disorders has failed to advance substantially. Therefore, global membrane protein profiling studies that are non-hypothesis driven and exploratory are a compl Read More

Studies employing proteomic technologies to study interactions of host plant with pathogenic bacteria are limited. Most studies on plant-pathogen interactions usually employed genetic approaches, such as the use of in vivo expression technology (IVET) and DNA microarray. However, because of the intrinsic nature of these techniques, issues on time frame, mechanisms involved as well as localization are virtually unknown. The Read More

Increasing evidence demonstrated that Propionibacterium acnes (P. acnes) plays a central role in many human polymicrobial diseases including acne vulgaris, which afflicts more than one million people in the U.S. alone. To date, there are no appropriate therapeutic modalities that effectively control P. acnes succession during disease development. By taking advantage of the availability of genome and proteome of P. acnes, w Read More

Mass spectrometry has shown that NAP22, a neuron specific protein isolated from rat brain is myristoylated, and it was additionally demonstrated by physicochemical methods that the myristoylation functioning in tandem with the phospholipid membrane is also directly involved in the interaction with calmodulin. Furthermore, besides the myristoylated brain specific protein, Src kinase and the HIV nef gene product have Read More

Cardiac hypertrophy, interstitial fibrosis, and cardiac dysfunction ultimately lead to cardiac failure. Cardiac failure is one of the major causes of heart disease and death in our society. The molecular causes of heart diseases, like many other diseases, remain largely unknown. Recently, large-scale proteomics studies have been undertaken to better understand the underlying mechanisms of molecular causes of heart disease. Read More

Although research on non-legume model species such as Arabidopsis thaliana and rice provides insight into many fundamental aspects of plant biology, it cannot address some important aspects of legume biology. Legumes are of immense importance to human and are an important crop for sustainable agriculture. Two model species, Lotus japonicas and Medicago truncatula, would have been the focus of genome sequen Read More