When Klaas van Wijk, an assistant professor of plant biology, first encountered the proteome about five years ago in his native Holland, he entered an uncharted biological world.
Today, as biologists map the genomes of humans, plants and animals, they are embarking on the logical next step: understanding the proteins that do the actual work in the cell, as genes encode for the protein. In short, a proteome is the collection of proteins that perform the functions of the cell. And van Wijk is documenting the proteome in plant cells and defining its functions as part of the research of the Plant Genomics group under the aegis of the New Life Sciences Initiative.
Until 1996, few had heard of proteomics and only a handful of papers had been published on the subject. By 1999, about 100 research papers had been published, and last year the number had skyrocketed to about 600.
"Proteomics and biological mass spectrometry will be mainstream tools," said van Wijk. "Like the PCR machine today, it was novel about 10 to 12 years ago. First there is skepticism, then there is hype, and next is the wave of research. We are at the beginning of the wave."
Said van Wijk: "In any cell, many of the important functions are carried out by the proteome, and we're trying to
understand how a plant cell builds up its proteome and how a cell's proteome responds to its environment -- which proteins are up- or
down-regulated.
Easily, we can see the tip of the iceberg. The challenge is seeing the rest of the iceberg."
Visualizing that "proteome iceberg" is critical in plant biology. It can allow agricultural scientists to understand how bacteria invade plants, how stress affects crops, as well as how plants develop and age. "Using proteomics, we can possibly see the signaling pathways within the plant, and we can then engineer better adaptability into plants," van Wijk said.
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