The proteome of the cell is at the frontier of being too complex for proteomic analysis. Organelles provide a step up. Organelles compartmentalize the cell enabling a proteome, physiology and metabolism analysis in time and in space. Protein complexes separated by electrophoresis have been identified as the next natural level to characterize the organelles’ compartmentalized membrane and soluble proteomes by mass spectrometry. Work on mitochondria and chloroplasts has shown where we are in the characterization of complex proteomes to understand the network of endogenous and extrinsic factors which regulate growth and development, adaptation and evolution.
