A review of current proteomics technologies with a survey on their widespread use in reproductive biology investigations

Proteomics is very much a technology-driven field. The ambition is to identify, quantify and to assess the state of posttranslational modification and interaction partners for every protein in the cell. The proteome is in a state of flux and is thus extremely complex. Analysis of the proteome is exacerbated by the huge dynamic concentration range of proteins in the cellular environment. The impact that mass spectrometry-based proteomics has had on the field of biology has heavily depended on dramatic improvements in mass spectrometry that have been made in recent years. We examined 1541 reports indexed in PubMed relating to proteomics and reproduction to identify trends in the field and to make some broad observations for future work. To set the scene, in the first part of the report, we give a comprehensive overview of proteomics and associated techniques and technologies (such as separations and mass spectrometry). The second part examines the field in light of these techniques and suggests some opportunities for application of these tools in the area of reproduction. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.