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Updated: Jul 9, 2026
07:28
JUMPn: A Streamlined Application for Protein Co-Expression Clustering and Network Analysis in Proteomics
Published on: October 19, 2021
Towards completion of the Earth's proteome
Carolina Perez-Iratxeta1, Gareth Palidwor, Miguel A Andrade-Navarro
1Department of Molecular Medicine, Ottawa Health Research Institute, 501 Smyth Road, Ottawa, Ontario K1H 8L6, Canada.
EMBO Reports
|December 7, 2007
Summary
The Earth's proteome, the complete set of protein sequences, is nearing completion. Analysis shows an increasing fraction of redundant sequences, suggesting most proteins will be identified within five years.
Area of Science:
- Bioinformatics
- Genomics
- Proteomics
Background:
- Databases receive protein sequences at an accelerating rate.
- Many newly sequenced proteins are homologous to existing ones, considered redundant.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze historical protein database releases to assess the completion of the Earth's proteome.
- To estimate the total size of the Earth's proteome and predict the timeline for its completion.
Main Methods:
- Utilized the original sequence-clustering procedure on all historical releases of the protein database.
- Analyzed the fraction of newly sequenced proteins that are redundant over time.
Main Results:
- The fraction of redundant newly sequenced proteins is increasing.
- The Earth's proteome is estimated to contain approximately 5 million sequences.
- Completion of the Earth's proteome is anticipated within the next five years.
Conclusions:
- The sequencing of the Earth's proteome is approaching completion.
- Cluster analysis of protein databases will be crucial for identifying under-explored taxa.
- Future sequencing efforts should focus on under-represented taxa and uncharacterized protein families.
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