Proteins in plants and in man do not act in isolation but have mutual regulatory relationships and act together in complex networks - to see in this picture. (Photo: TUM/Falter-Braun)
Research news - Since the completion of the human genome an important goal has been to elucidate the function of the now known proteins: a new molecular method enables the investigation of the function for thousands of proteins in parallel. Applying this new method, an international team of researchers with leading participation of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) was able to identify hundreds of previously unknown interactions among proteins. The human genome and those of most common crops have been decoded for many years. Soon it will be possible to sequence your personal genome for less than 1000 Euros. At yet, there is a well-kept secret: for thousands of the roughly 20,000 - 30,000 proteins encoded in the genome it is not clear what they do in the body, which function they have. This makes it difficult to interpret many upcoming data and understand the underlying molecular processes - and this is the case in diverse fields such as medical research, plant research or the development of alternative energy sources. The function of a protein is a composite of many different aspects: with which proteins does it work together? How are its functions regulated and which processes are affected by it? Even for the reference plant thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana) the function for about 10,000 proteins remains enigmatic.
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