ESCHERICHIA-COLI PROTEOME ANALYSIS USING THE GENE-PROTEIN DATABASE

The gene-protein database of Escherichia coli is a collection of data, largely generated from the separation of complex mixtures of cellular proteins on two-dimensional (2-D) polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The database currently contains about 1600 protein spots. The data ar e comprised of both identification information for many of these prote ins and data on how the level or synthesis rates of proteins vary unde r different growth conditions. Three projects are underway to further elucidate the E. coli proteome including a project to localize on 2-D gels all of the open reading framed encoded by the E. coli chromosome, a project to determine the condition(s) under which each open reading frame is expressed and a project to determine the abundance and locat ion of each protein in the cell. Applications for proteome databases f or cell modeling are discussed and examples of applications in therape utic drug discovery are given.