HUMAN AND MOUSE PROTEOMIC DATABASES - NOVEL RESOURCES IN THE PROTEIN UNIVERSE

Proteomics(1) is an emerging area of research of the post-genomic era that deals with the global analysis of gene expression using a plethor a of techniques to resolve (high resolution two-dimensional polyacryla mide gel electrophoresis, 2D PAGE), identify (peptide sequencing by Ed man degradation, mass spectrometry, Western immunoblotting, etc.), qua ntitate and characterize proteins, as well as to store (comprehensive 2D PAGE databases), communicate and interlink protein and DNA sequence and mapping information from genome projects. Here we review the curr ent status as well as applications of human and mouse proteomic 2D PAG E databases that are being systematically constructed for the global a nalysis of gene expression in both health and disease (http://biobase. dk/cgi-bin/celis). Furthermore, we discuss the problems one faces when using powerful proteomic technology to study heterogeneous tissue and tumor biopsies, and emphasize the importance of building comprehensiv e databases that contain a critical mass of information for both known and novel proteins in normal and disease conditions, (C) 1998 Federat ion of European Biochemical Societies.