VOLUME 2 • ISSUE 6 | July 2005 Next Issue: Jan. 2005 Proteomics & its Potential Application in Fisheries Sector -- Bimal P. Mohanty, Scientist, Fish Health & Environment Division, Biochemistry & Biotechnology Lab Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute, Barrackpore, Kolkata - 700 120. -- Sasmita Mohanty, School of Life Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi - 110 067 -- Ravindra S. Panwar, Central Inland Capture Fisheries Research Institute, Riverine Division 24-Panna Lal Road, Allahabad - 211 002, U.P Proteomics is the study of all the expressed proteins of an organism or cell type. Proteomics technology provides a powerful set of tools for the large-scale study of gene function directly at the protein level. This paper briefly discusses the proteomics technology and its potential application in fisheries for higher productivity and better fish health management. . What is Proteomics? Proteomics is the identification and characterization of all the proteins expressed by a genome or tissue, and understanding how these proteins function, both by themselves and in concert, within an organism (Kellner 2000). It is an emerging area of research in modern biology and has changed the understanding of molecular biology within the last five years (Gygi et al., 2000, Pandey and Mann 2000). The term ‘proteome’ or ‘proteomics’ was first introduced in 1995 (Wilkins et al., 1995). Proteome analysis is an attempt to describe the molecular basis of (patho) physiological processes. Life is the translation of the static genome into highly dynamic proteomes. Proteome analysis supplements gene sequence data with protein information about where and in which ratio and under what conditions proteins are expressed. The word ‘proteome’ was designed to denote the protein complement of a genome. Proteomics and genomics are synergetic (Fig. 1) . Genomics (the study of all the genes in a genome or tissue) attempts to make a complete inventory of genes and their nucleic acid sequences. Nucleic acids display a relative chemical homogeneity, as compared to proteins, and therefore genomics was considered more promising in the past than proteomics. It is well known that ~ 10% or less genes in any genome are expressed and thus the functional aspects of a large chunk of genes remain a mystery. In contrast to genomics approach, proteomics attempt to study the expressed proteins. Thus, proteomics is functional genomics. Proteins manifest physiological as well as pathophysiological processes in a cell or an organism, and proteomics describes the complete inventory of proteins as dependent on in vivo parameters. Disease mechanism or drug effects both affect a protein profile and, vice versa, characterizing protein profiles reveal information for the understanding of disease and therapy. The technical challenge is the complete coverage of physico-chemical aspects for thousands of proteins (Kellner 2000). With improvements in proteomics technologies, proteomics is complementing genomics as a tool to study life sciences. Proteomics Technology: Proteomics concerns the characterization of the full complement of proteins in a