Contribution of Mass Spectrometry-Based Proteomics to Discoveries in Developmental Biology

TMT proteomics analysis of a pseudocereal crop, quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.), during seed maturation

Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.), an Andean native crop, is increasingly popular around the world due to its high nutritional content and stress tolerance. The production and the popularity of this strategic global food are greatly restricted by many limiting factors, such as seed pre-harvest sprouting, bitter saponin, etc. To solve these problems, the underlying mechanism of seed maturation in quinoa needs to be investigated. In this study, based on the investigation of morphological characteristics, a quantitative analysis of its global proteome was conducted using the combinational proteomics of tandem mass tag (TMT) labeling and parallel reaction monitoring (PRM). The proteome changes related to quinoa seed maturation conversion were monitored to aid its genetic improvement. Typical changes of morphological characteristics were discovered during seed maturation, including mean grain diameter, mean grain thickness, mean hundred-grain weight, palea, episperm color, etc. With TMT proteomics analysis, 581 differentially accumulated proteins (DAPs) were identified. Functional classification analysis and Gene Ontology enrichment analysis showed that most DAPs involved in photosynthesis were downregulated, indicating low levels of photosynthesis. DAPs that participated in glycolysis, such as glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase, pyruvate decarboxylase, and alcohol dehydrogenase, were upregulated to fulfill the increasing requirement of energy consumption during maturation conversion. The storage proteins, such as globulins, legumins, vicilins, and oleosin, were also increased significantly during maturation conversion. Protein-protein interaction analysis and function annotation revealed that the upregulation of oleosin, oil body-associated proteins, and acyl-coenzyme A oxidase 2 resulted in the accumulation of oil in quinoa seeds. The downregulation of β-amyrin 28-oxidase was observed, indicating the decreasing saponin content, during maturation, which makes the quinoa "sweet". By the PRM and qRT-PCR analysis, the expression patterns of most selected DAPs were consistent with the result of TMT proteomics. Our study enhanced the understanding of the maturation conversion in quinoa. This might be the first and most important step toward the genetic improvement of quinoa.

Quantum Chemistry Calculations for Metabolomics

A primary goal of metabolomics studies is to fully characterize the small-molecule composition of complex biological and environmental samples. However, despite advances in analytical technologies over the past two decades, the majority of small molecules in complex samples are not readily identifiable due to the immense structural and chemical diversity present within the metabolome. Current gold-standard identification methods rely on reference libraries built using authentic chemical materials ("standards"), which are not available for most molecules. Computational quantum chemistry methods, which can be used to calculate chemical properties that are then measured by analytical platforms, offer an alternative route for building reference libraries, i.e., in silico libraries for "standards-free" identification. In this review, we cover the major roadblocks currently facing metabolomics and discuss applications where quantum chemistry calculations offer a solution. Several successful examples for nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, ion mobility spectrometry, infrared spectroscopy, and mass spectrometry methods are reviewed. Finally, we consider current best practices, sources of error, and provide an outlook for quantum chemistry calculations in metabolomics studies. We expect this review will inspire researchers in the field of small-molecule identification to accelerate adoption of in silico methods for generation of reference libraries and to add quantum chemistry calculations as another tool at their disposal to characterize complex samples.

Deletion of morpholino binding sites (DeMOBS) to assess specificity of morphant phenotypes

Two complimentary approaches are widely used to study gene function in zebrafish: induction of genetic mutations, usually using targeted nucleases such as CRISPR/Cas9, and suppression of gene expression, typically using Morpholino oligomers. Neither method is perfect. Morpholinos (MOs) sometimes produce off-target or toxicity-related effects that can be mistaken for true phenotypes. Conversely, genetic mutants can be subject to compensation, or may fail to yield a null phenotype due to leakiness (e.g. use of cryptic splice sites or downstream AUGs). When discrepancy between mutant and morpholino-induced (morphant) phenotypes is observed, experimental validation of such phenotypes becomes very labor intensive. We have developed a simple genetic method to differentiate between genuine morphant phenotypes and those produced due to off-target effects. We speculated that indels within 5' untranslated regions would be unlikely to have a significant negative effect on gene expression. Mutations induced within a MO target site would result in a Morpholino-refractive allele thus suppressing true MO phenotypes whilst non-specific phenotypes would remain. We tested this hypothesis on one gene with an exclusively zygotic function, tbx5a, and one gene with strong maternal effect, ctnnb2. We found that indels within the Morpholino binding site are indeed able to suppress both zygotic and maternal morphant phenotypes. We also observed that the ability of such indels to suppress morpholino phenotypes does depend on the size and the location of the deletion. Nonetheless, mutating the morpholino binding sites in both maternal and zygotic genes can ascertain the specificity of morphant phenotypes.