Mass spectrometry-based proteomic landscape of rice reveals a post-transcriptional regulatory role of N6-methyladenosine.

Rice is one of the most important staple food and model species in plant biology, yet its quantitative proteomes are largely uncharacterized. Here we quantify the relative protein levels of over 15,000 genes across major rice tissues using a tandem mass tag strategy followed by intensive fractionation and mass spectrometry. We identify tissue-specific and tissue-enriched proteins that are linked to the functional specificity of individual tissues. Proteogenomic comparison of rice and Arabidopsis reveals conserved proteome expression, which differs from mammals in that there is a strong separation of species rather than tissues. Notably, profiling of N6-methyladenosine (m6A) across the rice major tissues shows that m6A at untranslated regions is negatively correlated with protein abundance and contributes to the discordance between RNA and protein levels. We also demonstrate that our data are valuable for identifying novel genes required for regulating m6A methylation. Taken together, this study provides a paradigm for further research into rice proteogenome.

Single-worm quantitative proteomics reveals aging heterogeneity in isogenic Caenorhabditis elegans.

The heterogeneity of aging has been investigated at cellular and organic levels in the mouse model and human, but the exploration of aging heterogeneity at whole-organism level is lacking. C. elegans is an ideal model organism for studying this question as they are self-fertilized and cultured in the same chamber. Despite the tremendous progress made in single-cell proteomic analysis, there is few single-worm proteomics studies about aging. Here, we apply single-worm quantitative mass spectrometry to quantify the heterogenous proteomic changes during aging across individuals, a total of 3524 proteins from 157 C. eleagns individuals were quantified. A reconstructed C. elegans aging trajectory and proteomic landscape of fast-aging individuals were used to analyze the heterogeneity of C. elegans aging. We characterized inter-individual proteomic variation during aging and revealed contributing factors that distinguish fast-aging individuals from their siblings.

Mapping protein direct interactome of oxidoreductases with small molecular chemical cross-linkers in live cells.

Identifying direct substrates of enzymes has been a long-term challenge. Here, we present a strategy using live cell chemical cross-linking and mass spectrometry to identify the putative substrates of enzymes for further biochemical validation. Compared with other methods, our strategy is based on the identification of cross-linked peptides supported by high-quality MS/MS spectra, which eliminates false-positive discoveries of indirect binders. Additionally, cross-linking sites allow the analysis of interaction interfaces, providing further information for substrate validation. We demonstrated this strategy by identifying direct substrates of thioredoxin in both E. coli and HEK293T cells using two bis-vinyl sulfone chemical cross-linkers BVSB and PDES. We confirmed that BVSB and PDES have high specificity in cross-linking the active site of thioredoxin with its substrates both in vitro and in live cells. Applying live cell cross-linking, we identified 212 putative substrates of thioredoxin in E. coli and 299 putative S-nitrosylation (SNO) substrates of thioredoxin in HEK293T cells. In addition to thioredoxin, we have shown that this strategy can be applied to other proteins in the thioredoxin superfamily. Based on these results, we believe future development of cross-linking techniques will further advance cross-linking mass spectrometry in identifying substrates of other classes of enzymes.

Detecting Active Deconjugating Enzymes with Genetically Encoded Activity-Based Ubiquitin and Ubiquitin-like Protein Probes.

Post-translational modification of proteins by Ubiquitin (Ub) and Ubiquitin-like proteins (Ubls) can be reversed by deconjugating enzymes, which have been implicated in different pathways and associated with various human diseases. To understand the activity and dynamics of deconjugating enzymes, multiple synthetic and semi-synthetic Ub/Ubl probes have been developed, and some of them have been applied to screen inhibitors of deconjugating enzymes. Since these Ub/Ubl probes are generally not cell-permeable, different strategies have been developed to deliver Ub/Ubl probes to live cells. However, till now, no Ub/Ubl probes can be expressed in live cells to directly report on the activities of deconjugating enzymes in the most relevant cellular environment. Here, we genetically encoded cross-linkable Ub/Ubl probes in live E. coli and HEK293T cells. These probes can cross-link with deconjugating enzymes in vitro and in vivo. Using these Ub probes combined with mass spectrometry, we have successfully identified endogenous deconjugating enzymes in live cells. We believe that these genetically encoded Ub/Ubl probes are valuable for investigating biological functions of deconjugating enzymes in physiological environments.

Corrigendum: Proteome and Acetyl-Proteome Profiling of Camellia sinensis cv. 'Anji Baicha' during Periodic Albinism Reveals Alterations in Photosynthetic and Secondary Metabolite Biosynthetic Pathways.

[This corrects the article on p. 2104 in vol. 8, PMID: 29312376.].

Proteome and Acetyl-Proteome Profiling of Camellia sinensis cv. 'Anjin Baicha' during Periodic Albinism Reveals Alterations in Photosynthetic and Secondary Metabolite Biosynthetic Pathways.

Tea leaf color is not only important from an aesthetics standpoint but is also related to tea quality. To investigate the molecular mechanisms that determine tea leaf color, we examined Camellia sinensis cv. 'Anjin Baicha' (an albino tea cultivar) by tandem mass tag isobaric labeling to generate a high-resolution proteome and acetyl-proteome atlas of three leaf developmental stages. We identified a total of 7,637 proteins and quantified 6,256; of these, 3,232 were classified as differentially accumulated proteins (DAPs). We also identified 3,161 lysine acetylation sites in 1,752 proteins and quantified 2,869 in 1,612 proteins. The acetylation levels at 468 sites were significantly altered across the three developmental stages during periodic albinism; the corresponding proteins were associated with a variety of biological processes. Interestingly, a large number of DAPs and acetylated proteins with increased/decreased acetylation were related to photosynthesis and secondary metabolite biosynthetic pathways, suggesting that the accumulation or acetylation level of these proteins regulates periodic albinism in 'Anjin Baicha.' Additionally, overlap between succinylome and acetylome among three 'Anjin Baicha' developmental stages were found. These data provide important insight into the mechanisms of leaf coloration in the tea plant. The mass spectrometry data have been deposited to Proteome X change via the PRIDE partner repository with the data set identifier PXD008134.

A new sample preparation method for the absolute quantitation of a target proteome using (18)O labeling combined with multiple reaction monitoring mass spectrometry.

A key step in the workflow of bottom-up proteomics is the proteolysis of proteins into peptides with trypsin. In addition, enzyme-catalytic (18)O labeled peptides as internal standards coupled with multiple reaction monitoring mass spectrometry (MRM MS) for the absolute quantitation of the target proteome is commonly used for its convenient operation and low cost. However, long digestion and labeling times, incomplete digestion and (18)O to (16)O back exchange limit its application, therefore, we developed a rapid and efficient digestion method based on a high ratio of trypsin to protein. In addition, after separation of the digested samples using pipette tips packed with reversed-phase packing materials in house, the trypsin can be separated, collected and reused at least four times. Based on this approach, a novel protein quantification method using (18)O-labeled QconCAT peptides as internal standards combined with MRM MS for the absolute quantitation of a target proteome is established. Experimental results showed that the novel method had high digestion and (18)O labeling efficiencies, and no (18)O to (16)O back-exchange occurred. A linear range covering 2 orders of magnitude and a limit of quantification (LOQ) as low as 5 fmol were achieved with an RSD below 10%. Then, the quantitative method is used for the absolute quantitation of drug metabolizing enzymes in human liver microsomes. The results are in good agreement with the previously reported data, which demonstrates that the novel method can be used for absolute quantitative analyses of target proteomes in complex biological samples.

[Metal-tag labeling coupled with high performance liquid chromatography-selected ion monitoring mass spectrometry for absolute quantitation of proteins].

A novel method has been established based on metal element chelated tags coupled with high performance liquid chromatography-selected ion monitoring mass spectrometry (HPLC-SIM/MS). The labeling efficiency and stability of metal element chelated tags, the chromatographic retention behavior and MS behavior of the labeled peptides, the linear range and accuracy of this method were examined. The results showed that the metal element chelated tag method has high labeling efficiency and high labeling stability, and the labeled peptides with different kinds of metal tags have consistent chromatographic retention behavior. The method of metal tags coupled with HPLC-SIM/MS has high sensitivity with the limit of quantification (LOQ) up to 1 fmol. The linear range for the method was between 1 fmol to 500 fmol with R2 > 0.99, which means the method has a good linearity. Moreover, this method had an average recovery of 117.01%. The method was used in the absolute quantitation of a protein enolase in Thermoanaerobacter tengcongensis (TTE) with a relative standard deviation of 5.74%, which means high precision. All the results showed that this method is accurate and reliable for the absolute quantitation of proteins. This gives us an alternative for the quantitative determination of proteins in relatively simple biological samples.

[A novel method for absolute protein quantification using 18O isotope labeled concatamers of Q peptides combined with isotope dilution-multiple reaction monitoring mass spectrometry].

A method of concatamers of Q peptides (QconCATs) protein labeled with 18O-multiple reaction monitoring mass spectrometry for absolute quantification of proteins is established. The purity of the QconCAT recombinant protein was characterized by sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), and its purity was above 99%. The relative molecular mass was approximately 63.4 kDa. The peptides digested from the QconCAT recombinant protein and the extract of Thermoanaerobacter tengcongensis (TTE) were analyzed by mass spectrometry. The raw data were processed by pFind and pLabel softwares. The results showed that the efficiencies of protein digestion and the 18O labeling efficiency were able to meet the need of the protein quantification. The performance of the method was evaluated. The absolute contents of the selected proteins in TTE were determined with the relative standard deviations of less than 20% and the accuracy is high. The method not only avoid using the expensive reagent of stable isotope labeling with amino acids in cell culture (SILAC), but also provides an alternative way for the accurately absolute quantification of proteins in biological samples for quantitative proteomic research.

[Preparation of a trypsin immobilized reactor on silver wire modified by atom transfer radical polymer and its application in proteome identification].

The routine proteolysis of proteins is performed in solution, but it suffers from drawbacks such as long incubation time, enzyme autodigestion, and non-reusability. Therefore we here demonstrated that trypsin could be immobilized on silver wire modified by atom transfer radical polymerization to prepare a new kind of enzyme immobilized reactor. The digestion efficiency, repeatability and recovery of the silver wire-trypsin reactor (SW-Trypsin) were evaluated by mass spectrometry (MS) analysis. Highly efficient digestion was achieved by using SW-Trypsin within only 20 min. Standard protein could be almost completely digested with sequence coverage up to 93%, which is higher than that of 79% sequence coverage obtained by in-solution digestion for 16 h. Bovine serum albumin (BSA) was digested eight times within a month by using the SW-Trypsin. The results of sequence coverage were between 89% to 97%, with an average sequence coverage of 94%, which showed that SW-Trypsin had good stability. In addition, the recovery test by using myoglobin (MYO) showed that the recovery rate was 87.67%. At last, the extract from Tengchong thermophilic bacteria was digested by SW-Trypsin in 20 min and in-solution trypsin in 16 h. The results of sequence coverages and the number of identified proteins were similar. Moreover, the ratio of the number of peptides with zero missed cleavages to the number of all identified peptides by using SW-Trypsin was higher than that by in-solution digestion. Also, the SW-Trypsin was easily removed from the digestion solution. Good performances of SW-Trypsin implied that it has a good prospect in the application in future proteomics research.

[Effects of the size of magnetic particles of immobilized enzyme reactors on the digestion performance].

We applied immobilized enzyme reactors prepared with different sizes of magnetic particles into protein and proteome digestion. In addition, the influences of different sizes of the magnetic particles were studied on the reunion, enzyme efficiency and leakage sites. The experimental results showed that in comparison with the submicron magnetic particles, the amount of trypsin immobilized on the magnetic nanoparticles was 3. 5 times more than that of the submicron magnetic particles. However, the enzymatic efficiency was at the same level when the same amount of trypsin was used, and the reunion phenomenon was obviously improved when the size of the magnetic nanoparticles increased. Taking the immobilized enzyme reactor of 20 nm magnetic nanoparticles as an example, the digestion performance was further examined. The experimental results showed that rapid digestion could be achieved within 1 mm when the mass ratio of the trypsin and bovine serum albumin was 1:1. The peptide number of 0 missed cleavage site and the sequence coverage changed little after the protein was digested for 10 mm. It was concluded that the digestion efficiency of the immobilized enzyme reactor was much better than that of the in-solution digestion. When the immobilized enzyme reactors and the free trypsin were used for digestion, little differences of the leakage sites were found. Therefore, the immobilized enzyme reactors prepared with different sizes of magnetic particles can be applied in proteomic research for quick and efficient digestion.

[Establishment of retention time-dependent intelligent selected reaction monitoring mass spectrometric method and its application].

A method of liquid chromatographic retention time-dependent intelligent selected reaction monitoring mass spectrometry (iSRM MS) was established for the identification of targeted proteome, and was compared in detail with the method without liquid chromatographic retention time-dependent iSRM MS in the analysis results of different samples, such as the peptide mixtures from bovine serum albumin, six standard proteins or Thermoanaerobacter tengcongensis extract digested by trypsin. The results showed that the throughput of the identified peptides and the proteins was evidently increased with the method of liquid chromatographic retention time-dependent iSRM MS, especially in the complex sample such as Thermoanaerobacter tengcongensis extract. The coverage of the identified peptides and proteins from Thermoanaerobacter tengcongensis extract was reached 89.62% and 92.41% of the number of targeted peptides and proteins respectively. Higher sensitivity and reproducibility were also obtained. In addition, peptides with the same m/z but different retention times could be identified accurately when the method was used. With the higher throughput, better sensitivity and excellent reproducibility, the method of liquid chromatographic retention time-dependent iSRM MS can play an important role in the identification of targeted proteomes of complex biological samples in the future.