Two-Dimensional Gel Electrophoresis and the Beginning of Proteomics

Abstract

Featured article: O'Farrell PH. High resolution two-dimensional electrophoresis of proteins. J Biol Chem 1975;250:4007–21.2 No one had heard of proteomics in 1971. The invention of the word was 25 years away (1). At the time, doing molecular biology meant studying bacteria or their viruses, the bacteriophage. But as a starting graduate student in Boulder, Colorado, I wanted to study eukaryotic embryonic development. I joined the laboratory of Jacques Pene, which was focused on bacteriophage replication, because he was interested in starting a new system for study. He suggested the colonial algae, Volvox, which undergoes a simple embryogenesis to make two types of cells and a beautifully structured colony. Based on the bacteriophage paradigm, I chose to isolate mutants altered at different points in development. I assessed how the mutants interrupted or derailed morphogenesis, and then I wanted to compare this to how they influenced the changing pattern of gene expression, which, at the time, was best defined by changes in the proteins expressed. The most …