Identification of Plasmodium falciparum nuclear proteins by mass spectrometry and proposed protein annotation

PLoS One. 2018 Oct 31;13(10):e0205596. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0205596. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

The nuclear proteome of Plasmodium falciparum results from the continual shuttle of proteins between the cell cytoplasm-nucleus and vice versa. Using shotgun proteomics tools, we explored the nuclear proteins of mixed populations of Plasmodium falciparum extracted from infected erythrocytes. We combined GeLC-MS/MS and 2D-LC-MS/MS with a peptide ion exclusion procedure in order to increase the detection of low abundant proteins such as those involved in gene expression. We have identified 446 nuclear proteins covering all expected nuclear protein families involved in gene regulation. All structural ribosomal (40S and 60S) proteins were identified which is consistent with the nuclear localization of ribosomal biogenesis. Proteins involved in the translation machinery were also found suggesting that translational events might occur in the nucleus in P. falciparum as previously hypothesized in eukaryotes. These data were compared to the protein list established by PlasmoDB and submitted to Plasmobase a recently reported Plasmodium annotation website to propose new functional putative annotation of several unknown proteins found in the nuclear extracts.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Chromatography, Liquid
  • Cytoplasm / metabolism
  • Gene Expression / physiology
  • Nuclear Proteins / metabolism*
  • Plasmodium falciparum / metabolism*
  • Proteome
  • Proteomics / methods
  • Protozoan Proteins / metabolism*
  • Ribosomal Proteins / metabolism
  • Tandem Mass Spectrometry

Substances

  • Nuclear Proteins
  • Proteome
  • Protozoan Proteins
  • Ribosomal Proteins

Grants and funding

Only INSERM funding allowed the project.