Protein Identification from 2-D Gels Using In Vitro Transcription Translation Products

The genomics revolution offers the opportunity to describe biological processes on the basis of global and quantitative gene expression patterns from cells or organisms representing different states. Although DNA microarrays are extremely powerful for measuring gene expression at the mRNA level (1), the nonpredictive correlation between mRNA and protein levels (2,3) and the discovery of post-translational mechanisms that either modify the structure and function of proteins or alter their half-life and rate of synthesis (4) indicate that direct measurement of protein expression is essential for a proper analysis of the biological processes.