Detection of Viral Proteins in Human Cells Lines by Xeno-Proteomics: Elimination of the Last Valid Excuse for Not Testing Every Cellular Proteome Dataset for Viral Proteins

Chernobrovkin, Alexey L.; Zubarev, Roman A.

Cross-contamination remains a serious issue today [6] [7] [8] . The database of cross-contaminated or misidentified cell lines is freely accessible on the web (see go.nature.com/soppaj) and lists more than 400 cell lines. Many of the listed cell lines become contaminated at the source, so that all subsequent experimental work has become questionable [9] . This is why all cell banks now employ methods to confirm the identity and purity of the cell lines they distribute [10] , whereas scientific journals and funding bodies make authentication testing compulsory [11] . While commonly used cell identification based on short tandem repeats does not provide complete authentication of a human cell line, novel methods based on SNP profiling [8] or cell proteomic footprints [12] are much more reliable.