Proteomics

Definition

Proteomics is any systematic large scale study of a proteome or subproteome. The term proteome was coined in the mid-1990s as a linguistic equivalent to the concept of the genome. It refers to the complete set of proteins present in a biological specimen such as a single cell organism, a cell line, tissue, or biological fluid (serum, urine, saliva, etc.). The proteomes of complex organisms are far more complex than the set of expressed genes because genes are usually alternatively spliced and expressed proteins are often extensively and heterogeneously posttranslationally modified. Unlike a genome that is largely static over the lifetime of a cell or organism, proteomes are constantly changing in response to changes in the environment of the cell, tissue, or organism. Hence terms such as the “human proteome” or even the proteome of a cell line in tissue culture are meaningless because there are an essentially infinite number of proteomes.

Characteristics

Because many...