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Title: Integrative analysis of transcriptomic and proteomic data: challenges, solutions and applications

Journal Article · · Critical Reviews in Biotechnology, 27(2):63-75

Recent advances in high-throughput technologies enable quantitative monitoring of the abundance of various biological molecules and allow determination of their variation between biological states on a genomic scale. Two popular platforms areDNA microarrays to measure messenger RNA transcript levels, and gel-free proteomic analyses to determine protein abundance. Obviously, no single approach can fully unravel the complexities of fundamental biology and it is equally clear that integrative analysis of multiple levels of gene expression would be valuable in this endeavor. However, most integrative transcriptomic and proteomic studies have thus far either failed to find a correlation or have only observed a weak correlation. It is evident that this failure is not biologically based, but rather is related the inadequacy of available statistical tools to compensate for biases in the data collection methodologies. To address this issue, attempts have recently been made to systematically investigate the correlation patterns between transcriptomic and proteomic datasets, and to develop more sophisticated statistical tools to improve the chances of capturing a relationship. The goal of these investigations is to enhance our understanding of the relationship between transcriptome and proteome data so that integrative analyses may be utilized to reveal new biological insights that are not accessible through one dimensional datasets. In this review, we outline some of the challenges associated with integrative analyses and present some preliminary solutions based on progress being made in recent years. In addition, some new applications of integrated transcriptomic and proteomic analysis to the investigation of post-transcriptional regulation will also be discussed.

Research Organization:
Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
DOE Contract Number:
AC05-76RL01830
OSTI ID:
944514
Report Number(s):
PNNL-SA-53025; TRN: US200902%%808
Journal Information:
Critical Reviews in Biotechnology, 27(2):63-75, Vol. 27, Issue 2
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English