Proteomics techniques for the detection of translated pseudogenes

Abstract

Increasing evidence indicates that pseudogenes can reach the translational process. Translated pseudogene products have in fact been found in various organisms, confuting the original definition of pseudogenes as genes without any coding potential. Proteomics is the main technology allowing the study of proteins and, when integrated with genomics, is defined as proteogenomics. In proteogenomics, the peptide-genome alignment drives the identification and annotation of gene products and allows for a better understanding of their function. In this chapter, we give a brief overview of the proteomic techniques applied to pseudogenes. In particular, we discuss peptide spectrum acquisition, mass data analysis, and genome database matching.