Geneticists have discovered that the Human Genome is comprised of 22,000 genes. At first, they were puzzled as to why so few genes could create the complex being that is human. The answer was in protein formation. The role of each protein can be determined by when and where a protein is manipulated or expressed. Seeing this complexity gave scientists a new field of study, proteomics. Proteomics covers the structure and function of proteins, creating an even more complex field than genomics. Proteins are exponentially more difficult than genes due to cell location, cell environment, cell life cycle, or cell type. Varying protein types can come about by the following processes: alternative splicing of exons, use of different promoters, posttranscriptional modification, translational frameshifting, posttransitional modification, and RNA editing. Proteomics is practical for mapping organisms' evolution and interspecies relations.
Purpose:
To compare the different protein makeup of varying organisms so that we can better understand the evolutionary process. By tracing similar proteins, we can trace similar ancestry.
Hypothesis:
My hypothesis is that they will all be similar according to family, but there could be variance. I think the crustaceans and fish will vary.
Procedure:
Since all muscles of organisms are made of myosin and actin, we can break them down, or denature, by a heating process. After being broken down and stained, it can be run through an electrophesis gel so that they can be compared under a white light. By looking at the bands, we can determine ancestry and further extend the evolutionary tree
Results:
Looking at the gel, we could tell that the crustaceans were more similar than the fish, but because the crab was cooked, it showed deformity in the gel as a huge smear. This is obvious because the protein was already denature from being cooked beforehand. The fly DNA did not show up because there wasn't enough fly protein to create a sufficient smear.
