Abstract

Proteomics and the technology supporting this science are proving to be invaluable in elucidating the tremendous complexity of biological processes. Among proteomic techniques, two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE) has been applied to resolve thousands of proteins and 2-DE has been especially useful for comparative studies between paired samples or populations. Improved protein extraction and purification protocols for recalcitrant fruits and vegetables have resulted in 2-DE techniques appearing in almost all fruit and vegetable proteomic studies currently being published. Numerous proteins involving various metabolic pathways have already been reported for tomato, pepper, strawberry, grape, banana, apple and pear. Significant improvements have been made to both gel and non-gel based proteomic research platforms. Better quantitative analyses and higher throughput proteomic technologies will further improve fruit and vegetable proteomic research and will have a significant impact on future breeding and post-harvest handling technologies to improve nutritional and eating quality.

Keywords: Proteomics, review, 2-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE), mass spectrometry, quality