Seawater Proteomics

海水蛋白质组学

• 批准号: 0453737
• 负责人: Aaron Timperman
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: West Virginia University Research Corporation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2005
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2005-09-01 至 2010-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0453737&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Seawater; Proteomics

ABSTRACTOCE-0453737Although large amounts of carbon are stored in the oceans as dissolved organic matter (DOM), the complexity of this heterogeneous pool has meant that little is known about the high molecular weight organic matter at the molecular level, and this lack has hindered a more detailed understanding of the mechanisms that control its cycling. Scientists from the University of West Virginia and from the University of Puerto Rico have teamed up to study an important component of DOM, the dissolved proteins in the ocean. Although only a small fraction of the DOM, proteins are, however, a primary component of the dissolved organic nitrogen pool that arises from processes such as cell lysis or excretion. They will take advantage of the dramatic improvements in proteomic analysis to sequence and identify marine proteins using state-of-the-art mass spectrometric analysis. Intact proteins will be analyzed with Fourier transform mass spectrometry to access the complexity of protein bands separated by gel electrophoresis. The reliability and specificity of peptide tags obtained through de novo sequencing will hence be improved. Direct database matching and homology searching should yield important clues to the sources of dissolved proteins. The data will be searched for evidence suggesting the presence of post-translational protein modifications. Identified modifications will be characterized to determine if they are common biological modifications or if they appear to be the result of abiotic processes. Successful transfer of these techniques to the ocean will open the way for resolution of longstanding issues concerning the sources and changes in organic nitrogen, an important reservoir of nitrogen for marine life. In terms of broader impacts, results from this study will begin to apply the rapidly maturing technology of proteomics to the chemistry of organic nitrogen in the oceans, leveraging knowledge from the burgeoning genomic sequences of marine organisms. A graduate student, and a postdoctoral fellow with training in Chemical Oceanography, will be trained in these new techniques as part of this study.

尽管大量的碳以溶解有机物（DOM）的形式储存在海洋中，但这一异构池的复杂性意味着我们对分子水平上的高分子量有机物知之甚少，这一缺乏阻碍了对其循环控制机制的更详细理解。来自西弗吉尼亚大学和波多黎各大学的科学家们合作研究了DOM的一个重要组成部分，即海洋中的溶解蛋白质。尽管蛋白质只占DOM的一小部分，但它们是细胞裂解或排泄等过程中产生的溶解有机氮池的主要组成部分。他们将利用蛋白质组学分析的巨大进步，利用最先进的质谱分析对海洋蛋白质进行测序和鉴定。完整的蛋白质将用傅里叶变换质谱分析，以获得凝胶电泳分离的蛋白质带的复杂性。因此，通过从头测序获得的肽标签的可靠性和特异性将得到提高。直接的数据库匹配和同源性搜索将为溶解蛋白的来源提供重要线索。这些数据将被用来寻找翻译后蛋白修饰存在的证据。鉴定的修饰将被表征以确定它们是普通的生物修饰还是它们似乎是非生物过程的结果。将这些技术成功地转移到海洋将为解决有关有机氮来源和变化的长期问题开辟道路，有机氮是海洋生物重要的氮储存库。就更广泛的影响而言，本研究的结果将开始将迅速成熟的蛋白质组学技术应用于海洋有机氮的化学，利用新兴的海洋生物基因组序列的知识。作为这项研究的一部分，一名研究生和一名接受过化学海洋学培训的博士后将接受这些新技术的培训。