Editing Structural genomics (section)

== Examples of structural genomics ==
There are currently a number of on-going efforts to solve the structures for every protein in a given proteome.

===''Thermotoga maritima'' proteome===
One current goal of the [[Joint Center for Structural Genomics]] (JCSG), a part of the [[Protein Structure Initiative]] (PSI) is to solve the structures for all the proteins in ''[[Thermotoga|Thermotoga maritima]]'', a thermophillic bacterium. ''T. maritima'' was selected as a structural genomics target based on its relatively small genome consisting of 1,877 genes and the hypothesis that the proteins expressed by a thermophilic bacterium would be easier to crystallize.

Lesley ''et al'' used ''[[Escherichia coli]]'' to express all the open-reading frames (ORFs) of ''T. martima''. These proteins were then crystallized and structures were determined for successfully crystallized proteins using X-ray crystallography.  Among other structures, this structural genomics approach allowed for the determination of the structure of the TM0449 protein, which was found to exhibit a novel fold as it did not share structural homology with any known protein.<ref>{{cite journal  |vauthors=Lesley SA, Kuhn P, Godzik A, etal |title=Structural genomics of the Thermotoga maritima proteome implemented in a high-throughput structure determination pipeline |journal=Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. |volume=99 |issue=18 |pages=11664–9 |date=September 2002 |pmid=12193646 |pmc=129326 |doi=10.1073/pnas.142413399 |bibcode=2002PNAS...9911664L |doi-access=free }}</ref>

===''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' proteome===
The goal of the [[Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Structural Genomics Consortium|TB Structural Genomics Consortium]] is to determine the structures of potential drug targets in ''[[Mycobacterium tuberculosis]]'', the bacterium that causes tuberculosis. The development of novel drug therapies against tuberculosis are particularly important given the growing problem of [[multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis]].

The fully sequenced genome of ''M. tuberculosis'' has allowed scientists to clone many of these protein targets into expression vectors for purification and structure determination by X-ray crystallography.  Studies have identified a number of target proteins for structure determination, including extracellular proteins that may be involved in pathogenesis, iron-regulatory proteins, current drug targets, and proteins predicted to have novel folds. So far, structures have been determined for 708 of the proteins encoded by ''M. tuberculosis''.