Backyard Proteomics: A Case Study with the Black Widow Spider.

Nearly all methods of mass-spectrometry-based proteomics rely on knowing the proteome of the species. In less studied organisms without annotated genomes, it can seem impossible to perform proteomic analysis. In this study, we sought to answer the question: does enough information exist to do proteomics on any organism we want? As a case study, we started with material available due to an infestation of a home with black widow spiders.