Genomics and proteomics: of hares, tortoises and the complexity of tortoises

Fine Tuning of Proteomic Technologies to Improve Biological Findings: Advancements in 2011–2013

“…Our genes contain the basic information to encode up to 30 × 10 3 proteins, while the human proteome is estimated to contain from 25 to 100 × 10 4 proteins. 4 Complexity is added first by the RNA editing machinery and then by co-and PTMs) such as glycosylation, sulfation, phosphorylation, ubiquitination, acetylation, and regulated proteolysis. The proteome complexity grows and expands with temporal variations in protein turnover, protein modification, and protein−protein interaction.…”

“…The analyses of the membrane proteome, estimated at 20−30% of total proteome, is challenging because of the hydrophobicity of the proteins to be extracted and, as such, is often under-represented in proteomic analyses, a critical oversight given that over 50% of drugs target membrane proteins. 4 Several recent papers describe improvements for membrane-extraction strategies and efficiencies. Shevchenko et al carried out a large comparative study of 16 different extraction approaches on the mouse brain proteome.…”

Challenges and developments in protein identification using mass spectrometry

“…The complexity of any proteome is so large that none of the existing technologies can deliver complete detection and quantification of all the proteins that are present. The human genome contains about 20,300 protein-encoding genes, but the total number of proteins in human cells is estimated to be 0.25-1x10 6 [4].…”