Metaproteomics: Techniques And Applications

Microbial ecology is currently experiencing a renaissance spurred by the rapid development of molecular techniques and 'omics' technologies in particular. As never before, these tools have allowed researchers in the field to produce a massive amount of information through in situ measurements and analysis of natural microbial communities, both vital approaches to the goal of unravelling the interactions of microbes with their environment and with one another. While genomics can provide information regarding the genetic potential of microbes, proteomics characterizes the primary end-stage product, proteins, thus conveying functional information concerning microbial activity. Advances in mass spectrometry instrumentation and methodologies, along with bioinformatics approaches, have brought this analytic chemistry technique to relevance in the biological realm due to its powerful applications in proteomics. Mass spectrometry-enabled proteomics, including 'bottom-up' and 'top-down' approaches, is capable of supplying a wealth of biologically relevant information, from simple protein cataloguing of the proteome of a microbial community to identifying posttranslational modifications of individual proteins.