Advances in plant proteomics

With the avalanche of genomic information and improvements in analytical technology, proteomics is becoming increasingly important for the study of many different aspects of plant functions. Since proteins serve as important components of major signaling and biochemical pathways, studies at protein levels are essential to reveal molecular mechanisms underlying plant growth, development, and interactions with the environment. The plant proteome is highly complex and dynamic. Although great strides need to be taken towards the ultimate goal of characterizing all the proteins in a proteome, current technologies have provided immense opportunities for high-throughput proteomic studies that have gone beyond simple protein identification to analyzing various functional aspects, such as quantification, PTM, subcellular localization, and protein-protein interactions. In this review of plant proteomics, advances in protein fractionation, separation, and MS will be outlined. Focus will be on recent development in functional analysis of plant proteins, which paves the way towards the comprehensive integration with transcriptomics, metabolomics, and other large scale "-omics" into systems biology.