This paper, produced when Aebersold was still at the University of Washington, demonstrated how science can build on the achievements of genomics to reach proteins, the next level of systems analysis. It did so, in part, by proving that messenger RNA transcript levels are poor predictors of protein expression levels in yeast. "The main point is, if you want to know what the proteome consists of, you can't just measure mRNA levels," Aebersold summarizes.
Using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and mass spectrometry, his team analyzed 156 protein spots from the yeast Saccaromyces cerevisiae. These spots represented the products of 128 genes, narrowed to 106 after researchers excluded some for a lack of corresponding mRNA expression data and other factors. Correlations between mRNA levels and protein expression were poor in most genes, for which the message level was below 10 copies per cell. Some genes with comparable mRNA levels had a 30-fold ...
