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This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 575/2/367    most recent jphysiol.2006.113795v1 Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Anderson, C. N. G. Articles by Grant, S. G. N. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Anderson, C. N. G. Articles by Grant, S. G. N. Related Collections Review articles

¹ Genes to Cognition programme, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire CB10 1SA, UK

The cellular complexity of the brain (some estimate that there are up to 10³ different cell types) is exceeded by the synaptic complexity, with each of the 10¹¹ neurons in the brain having around 10³–10⁴ synapses. Proteomic studies of the synapse have revealed that the postsynaptic density is the most complex multiprotein structure yet identified, with 10³ different proteins. Such studies, however, use brain tissue with many different regions and therefore different cell types, and there is clear potential for heterogeneity of protein content at different synapses within and between brain regions. Although large-scale mRNA-based assays are in progress to map this sort of complexity at the cellular level, and indeed all brain-expressed genes, analysis of protein distribution (at synapses and other structures) is still in the very early stages. We review existing large-scale protein expression studies and the specific technical obstacles that need to be overcome before applying the scaling used in nucleic acid based approaches.

(Received 18 May 2006; accepted after revision 16 June 2006; first published online 22 June 2006)
Corresponding author S. G. N. Grant: Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire CB10 1SA, UK.  Email: sg3{at}sanger.ac.uk

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