A community resource to mass explore the wheat grain proteome and its application to the late-maturity alpha-amylase (LMA) problem

BACKGROUND

Late-maturity alpha-amylase (LMA) is a wheat genetic defect causing the synthesis of high isoelectric point alpha-amylase following a temperature shock during mid-grain development or prolonged cold throughout grain development, both leading to starch degradation. While the physiology is well understood, the biochemical mechanisms involved in grain LMA response remain unclear. We have applied high-throughput proteomics to 4,061 wheat flours displaying a range of LMA activities. Using an array of statistical analyses to select LMA-responsive biomarkers, we have mined them using a suite of tools applicable to wheat proteins.

RESULTS

We observed that LMA-affected grains activated their primary metabolisms such as glycolysis and gluconeogenesis; TCA cycle, along with DNA- and RNA- binding mechanisms; and protein translation. This logically transitioned to protein folding activities driven by chaperones and protein disulfide isomerase, as well as protein assembly via dimerisation and complexing. The secondary metabolism was also mobilized with the upregulation of phytohormones and chemical and defence responses. LMA further invoked cellular structures, including ribosomes, microtubules, and chromatin. Finally, and unsurprisingly, LMA expression greatly impacted grain storage proteins, as well as starch and other carbohydrates, with the upregulation of alpha-gliadins and starch metabolism, whereas LMW glutenin, stachyose, sucrose, UDP-galactose, and UDP-glucose were downregulated.

CONCLUSIONS

To our knowledge, this is not only the first proteomics study tackling the wheat LMA issue but also the largest plant-based proteomics study published to date. Logistics, technicalities, requirements, and bottlenecks of such an ambitious large-scale high-throughput proteomics experiment along with the challenges associated with big data analyses are discussed.

The Applications of Clustering Methods in Predicting Protein Functions

Background:

The understanding of protein function is essential to the study of biological processes. However, the prediction of protein function has been a difficult task for bioinformatics to overcome. This has resulted in many scholars focusing on the development of computational methods to address this problem.

Objective:

In this review, we introduce the recently developed computational methods of protein function prediction and assess the validity of these methods. We then introduce the applications of clustering methods in predicting protein functions.

Analysis and classification of DNA-binding sites in single-stranded and double-stranded DNA-binding proteins using protein information

Single-stranded DNA-binding proteins (SSBs) and double-stranded DNA-binding proteins (DSBs) play different roles in biological processes when they bind to single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) or double-stranded DNA (dsDNA). However, the underlying binding mechanisms of SSBs and DSBs have not yet been fully understood. Here, the authors firstly constructed two groups of ssDNA and dsDNA specific binding sites from two non-redundant sets of SSBs and DSBs. They further analysed the relationship between the two classes of binding sites and a newly proposed set of features (residue charge distribution, secondary structure and spatial shape). To assess and utilise the predictive power of these features, they trained a classification model using support vector machine to make predictions about the ssDNA and the dsDNA binding sites. The author's analysis and prediction results indicated that the two classes of binding sites can be distinguishable by the three types of features, and the final classifier using all the features achieved satisfactory performance. In conclusion, the proposed features will deepen their understanding of the specificity of proteins which bind to ssDNA or dsDNA.