Gavin states that he is a geneticist and says:  "There are complex  controls 
over the expression of most genes,,,it is just that now we are getting  some 
idea of just how complex."
 
Working with the Army, we are getting heavily into Proteomics and  bees, and 
I think that this may be where some of this conversation may be  going.   

FYI, all of the genes in a cell (or organism) constitute the  genome.  
Similarly, the entire constellation of proteins in a  cell make up the proteome.  
Proteins are made up of  building 20 amino acid building blocks.  
 
Finally, some folks have adopted short cut terminology of calling genomics  
and proteomics the Omics - bit cute for my taste.  But in the field of  
Informatics, you will see references made to omics.

 
Establishing the honey bee genome (mapping the blueprint)  was step 1. Genes 
get lots of press, but it’s the  proteins (step 2) that perform most life 
functions and even  make up the majority of cellular structures.
 
There's not been much discussion on this list about Proteomics, but  this is 
where the big pharmaceutical companies are looking for  new treatments.  It is 
still hard to replace or 'fix' a  gene.   Genes regulate the production of 
proteins, and  that's where many more opportunities exist, since proteins can 
turn  things on and off, etc.  Studying proteomics (protein  expression and 
function) promises to help elucidate the molecular basis of  health and disease. 
 
With new advances in instrumentation, we can now screen for a huge array of  
peptides/proteins in a single bee sample.  Typically, we get hundreds,  often 
thousands of identifiable peptides per bee sample.   Peptides are short 
polymers of amino acids..  Proteins are polypeptide  molecules (consisting of 
multiple peptides). The distinction is that  peptides are short and 
polypeptides/proteins are long.  
 
We can match the identified peptides in a given bee  sample against databases 
of over 64 million known peptides.   Using only those peptides that pass the 
criteria of strong correlation/multiple  peptide, we have already discovered 
the introduction of a new bee virus to N.  America, learned a lot about a wide 
array of diseases in U.S. bees, discovered  much about other insect and plant 
diseases in bee hives, and have found some  leads that may help distinguish 
sick from healthy bees.
 
The CA Beekeepers funded us and the Army to conduct a proteomics study of  CA 
bees to establish baselines and profiles.  
 
Last week, we got a commitment from beekeepers in Canada to send us  samples. 
 
 
Working with the Army, we can now offer proteomics screening to  beekeepers.  
The price per test is a bit pricey at $250 sample, but  the information 
obtained is somewhat similar to going to your doctor for a  checkup and having just 
about every lab test known conducted at one time.   We will be at the 
National Bee meetings to present more about this subject and  why it should be of 
interest to you.
 
I assume by now, some of you are saying, if proteomics is so good, why are  
we only now hearing about it.  Well, there's a downside.  We having  only 
scratched the surface in understanding this data - and worldwide,  scientists are 
struggling with the concept that as complex as genomics is,  proteomics is even 
more complex.
 
More than one article about proteomics quotes Sir Winston Churchill.
 
His words, spoken in 1942 after 3 years of war, capture well  the 
genome/proteomics era: "Now this is not the end. It is not even the  beginning of the 
end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."  
Jerry
 


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