複雑系研究手法としてのPROTEOMICS とパースのアブダクション（仮説形成推理）

抄録

A proteomics approach to the study of protein expression and post-translational modification does not require presumptions of the identity of target proteins. A proteomic investigation begins with the discovery of unidentified proteins of interest under well-defined physiological conditions. The approach involves 1) protein display by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis or other separation technique, 2) determination of protein entities, 3) peptide mass fingerprinting, and 4) genome/proteome database search. We show that the methodology of the proteomics approach is characterized neither by deduction nor by induction in the traditional sense, but is a clear example of what C. S. Peirce described as abductive inference almost a century ago. The investigation of complex signaling pathways is intractable to deductive and inductive methods due to its extreme complexity. We show two cases of the proteomics approach as applied to the visual systems of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, and rodents. These examples illustrate the role of abductive inference in proteomics, a discipline at the forefront of current studies in molecular biology.