Early efforts in joint proteome research

2002/05/06 Orobengoa, Olatz - Elhuyar Zientziaren Komunikazioa

• Genetika

Proteome is the set of all proteins that each living being contains. Last year, in order to limit the private initiatives that could arise for the study of the proteome, the international organization called HUPO was created. The HUPO or The Human Proteome Organization consists of international industry, university researchers and government representatives. The aim of the organization is to promote joint and collaborative proteome research, in order to prevent private companies from keeping their data as trade secrets. The collaboration is expected to create an incredible database that can be used by groups of researchers around the world.

Achieving this goal, however, will not be easy if we take into account the difficulties of proteome research. For example, the amount of
protein: in the human genome there are between 30,000 and 40,000 genes, in the proteome there are between 200,000 and 2 million proteins, depending on the
type of cell. But that is the slightest difficulty.

Knowing the amino acid sequence that makes up a protein is not enough to know what its function is. The first thing to know is which gene encodes the protein. Here's
how the amino acid sequence folds and if other molecules come together. Finally, it is necessary to know the function of the protein.

Therefore, unlike the genome, identification problems multiply. Therefore, HUPO considers the collaboration between scientific teams essential for a complete identification. It is clear that the proteome study will last much longer than with the genome.