Editorial: Breakthroughs in top-down proteomics

• Autor(a) principal: Penque, Deborah
• Data de Publicação: 2018
• Outros Autores: Marcus, Katrin, Torres, Vukosaca Milic
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.18/5435
• topic: Proteomics; Biomarkers; Genómica Funcional e Estrutural; Genómica Funcional

In this special issue, an updated overview on ‘where we are and where we are going in the area of top-down proteomics’ is given by Fornelli et al., one of the pioneering groups in top-down proteomics led by the proponent head of the term ‘proteoform’ and founder of the international Consortium in Top-Down Proteomics (CTDP), Neil Kelleher. Although being still technologically challenging, the rapid advances over the past years have demonstrated that the identification and characterization of thousands of proteoforms in high-throughput mode is today feasible for intact proteins< 30 kDa under denaturing condition. To further advance, the development of a new generation of instruments and softwares is still necessary, which may happen in the next coming years as predicted by the authors. The high molecular weight capability of native-top down proteomics, used today to characterize purified protein complexes under non-denaturing condition, is one of these technologies that could be innovated for high throughput top-down purposes. The main driver for this breakthrough is undoubtedly the wider acceptance and application of top-down approaches by proteomic researchers. This journey is already under way, as evidenced by the different articles presented in this special issue.