Bioinformatics in proteomics

Several genome sequencing projects have recently been completed and the maj ority of human coding regions have been sequenced. In the next step many of the further studies will concentrate on proteins. Proteomics methods are e ssential for studying protein expression. activity, regulation and modifica tions. Bioinformatics is an integral part of proteomics research. The recen t developments and applications in proteomics are discussed including mass spectrometry data analysis and interpretation, analysis and storage of the get images to databases, gel comparison, and advanced methods to study e.g. protein co-expression, protein-protein interactions, as well as metabolic and cellular pathways. The significance of informatics in proteomics will g radually increase because of the advent of high-throughput methods relying on powerful data analysis. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserv ed.