FUNCTIONAL PROTEOMICS TO EXPLOIT GENOME SEQUENCES

The sequencing of the human genome is now entering its final approach. The main results were published in two issues of Nature and Science (6,7), published simultaneously during the week of February 16, 2001. After so many efforts, researchers can now know – more precisely "read " – the sequence of all the elements which constitute our genes, i.e. our molecular memory. In addition, scientists will also be able to read almost everything that surrounds these genes, i.e. what we today refer to as the "non-coding " parts since in most cases we still do not know what purpose they serve. These parts represent more than 97 % of the entire human genome. For many people, this decisive step forward in the study of our genes represents a remarkable achievement. This is certainly true in technical terms. Unfortunately, reading a sequence does not necessarily guarantee that we will understand its meaning. For example, we can all decipher the letters which compose the words of any language written in the Latin alphabet, and we can guess the meaning of certain words with origins similar to those of our own tongue. However the Turkish language, fo