Shift from Gel Based to Gel Free Proteomics to Unlock Unknown Regulatory Network in Plants: A Comprehensive Review

Proteomics has emerged as a vital tool to identify the novel proteins and explore the cellular dynamics by employing highly proficient and innovative techniques introduced in the past few years. The expedition began with the emergence of gel-based 2DE approaches for evaluation of diverse proteins and differential protein analysis. Later, advancements in the field lead to the advent of gel-free approaches that render more accuracy and reliable results. In spite of introduction of high-throughput analysis offered by new techniques, the overall beneficence of gel-based approaches cannot be ignored. The combined effort of all these approaches can generate astonishing results. Protein analysis under specific conditions attempts to deduce the expression pathways and thus will help to expand our knowledge pertaining to metabolic and regulatory routes. Further, understanding the dynamics of these biomolecules and metabolites involved in the pathways can facilitate their desired manipulation for altering the gene expression. This will assist in clinical purposes for development of drugs and in systems biology to get the broad picture of metabolic processes and their regulation. This review highlights the trend with which progress in plant proteomics technology has been made right from gel based to gel free strategies with discussion of basic principles and procedures involved in each technique. Advances in this field can lead to precise interpretation of several biological processes.