Progress and Future Direction of Chromosome-Centric Human Proteome Project

Comprehensive comparison of sample preparation workflows for proteomics

Mass spectrometry-based proteomics experiments can be subject to a large variability, which forms an obstacle to obtaining deep and accurate protein identification. Here, to obtain an optimal sample preparation workflow...

ExteNDing Proteome Coverage with Legumain as a Highly Specific Digestion Protease

Bottom-up mass spectrometry-based proteomics utilizes proteolytic enzymes with well characterized specificities to generate peptides amenable for identification by high-throughput tandem mass spectrometry. Trypsin, which cuts specifically after the basic residues lysine and arginine, is the predominant enzyme used for proteome digestion, although proteases with alternative specificities are required to detect sequences that are not accessible after tryptic digest. Here, we show that the human cysteine protease legumain exhibits a strict substrate specificity for cleavage after asparagine and aspartic acid residues during in-solution digestions of proteomes extracted from Escherichia coli, mouse embryonic fibroblast cell cultures, and Arabidopsis thaliana leaves. Generating peptides highly complementary in sequence, yet similar in their biophysical properties, legumain (as compared to trypsin or GluC) enabled complementary proteome and protein sequence coverage. Importantly, legumain further enabled the identification and enrichment of protein N-termini not accessible in GluC- or trypsin-digested samples. Legumain cannot cleave after glycosylated Asn residues, which enabled the robust identification and orthogonal validation of N-glycosylation sites based on alternating sequential sample treatments with legumain and PNGaseF and vice versa. Taken together, we demonstrate that legumain is a practical, efficient protease for extending the proteome and sequence coverage achieved with trypsin, with unique possibilities for the characterization of post-translational modification sites.

Alternative Strategy To Explore Missing Proteins with Low Molecular Weight

Identifying more missing proteins (MPs) is an important mission of C-HPP. With the number of identified MPs being attenuated year by year (2,949 to 2,129 MPs from 2016 to 2019), we have realized that the difficulty of exploring the remaining MPs is a challenge in technique. Herein, we propose a comprehensive strategy to effectively enrich, separate, and identify proteins with low molecular weights, aiming at the discovery of MPs. Basically, a protein extract from human placenta was passed through a C18 SPE column, and the bound proteins that were eluted were further separated with an SDS-PAGE gel or a 50 kDa cutoff filter. The separated proteins were subjected to trypsin digestion, and the MS/MS signals were searched against data sets with two different digestion modes (full-trypsin and semitrypsin). The strategy was adopted, resulting in the identification of 4 MPs with 8 unique peptides (≥2 non-nested unique peptides with ≥9 amino acids). Importantly, the identification of 6 out of 8 of the unique peptides derived from the MPs was further supported by parallel reaction monitoring, which confirmed the identification of 3 MPs from human placenta tissues (Q6NT89: TMF-regulated nuclear protein 1; A0A183: late cornified envelope protein 6A; and Q6UWQ7: insulin growth factor-like family member 2, mapped to chromosomes 1, 1, and 19, respectively). The three proteins ranged in length from 80 aa to 227 aa. The study not only establishes a feasible strategy for analyzing proteins with low molecular weights but also fills a small part of a large gap in the list of MPs. The data obtained in this study are available via ProteomeXchange (PXD014083) and PeptideAtlas (PASS01389).

Progress on Identifying and Characterizing the Human Proteome: 2018 Metrics from the HUPO Human Proteome Project

The Human Proteome Project (HPP) annually reports on progress throughout the field in credibly identifying and characterizing the human protein parts list and making proteomics an integral part of multiomics studies in medicine and the life sciences. NeXtProt release 2018-01-17, the baseline for this sixth annual HPP special issue of the Journal of Proteome Research, contains 17 470 PE1 proteins, 89% of all neXtProt predicted PE1-4 proteins, up from 17 008 in release 2017-01-23 and 13 975 in release 2012-02-24. Conversely, the number of neXtProt PE2,3,4 missing proteins has been reduced from 2949 to 2579 to 2186 over the past two years. Of the PE1 proteins, 16 092 are based on mass spectrometry results, and 1378 on other kinds of protein studies, notably protein-protein interaction findings. PeptideAtlas has 15 798 canonical proteins, up 625 over the past year, including 269 from SUMOylation studies. The largest reason for missing proteins is low abundance. Meanwhile, the Human Protein Atlas has released its Cell Atlas, Pathology Atlas, and updated Tissue Atlas, and is applying recommendations from the International Working Group on Antibody Validation. Finally, there is progress using the quantitative multiplex organ-specific popular proteins targeted proteomics approach in various disease categories.

Launching the C-HPP neXt-CP50 Pilot Project for Functional Characterization of Identified Proteins with No Known Function

An important goal of the Human Proteome Organization (HUPO) Chromosome-centric Human Proteome Project (C-HPP) is to correctly define the number of canonical proteins encoded by their cognate open reading frames on each chromosome in the human genome. When identified with high confidence of protein evidence (PE), such proteins are termed PE1 proteins in the online database resource, neXtProt. However, proteins that have not been identified unequivocally at the protein level but that have other evidence suggestive of their existence (PE2-4) are termed missing proteins (MPs). The number of MPs has been reduced from 5511 in 2012 to 2186 in 2018 (neXtProt 2018-01-17 release). Although the annotation of the human proteome has made significant progress, the "parts list" alone does not inform function. Indeed, 1937 proteins representing ∼10% of the human proteome have no function either annotated from experimental characterization or predicted by homology to other proteins. Specifically, these 1937 "dark proteins" of the so-called dark proteome are composed of 1260 functionally uncharacterized but identified PE1 proteins, designated as uPE1, plus 677 MPs from categories PE2-PE4, which also have no known or predicted function and are termed uMPs. At the HUPO-2017 Annual Meeting, the C-HPP officially adopted the uPE1 pilot initiative, with 14 participating international teams later committing to demonstrate the feasibility of the functional characterization of large numbers of dark proteins (CP), starting first with 50 uPE1 proteins, in a stepwise chromosome-centric organizational manner. The second aim of the feasibility phase to characterize protein (CP) functions of 50 uPE1 proteins, termed the neXt-CP50 initiative, is to utilize a variety of approaches and workflows according to individual team expertise, interest, and resources so as to enable the C-HPP to recommend experimentally proven workflows to the proteome community within 3 years. The results from this pilot will not only be the cornerstone of a larger characterization initiative but also enhance understanding of the human proteome and integrated cellular networks for the discovery of new mechanisms of pathology, mechanistically informative biomarkers, and rational drug targets.

Chromosome 17 Missing Proteins: Recent Progress and Future Directions as Part of the neXt-MP50 Challenge

The Chromosome-centric Human Proteome Project (C-HPP), announced in September 2016, is an initiative to accelerate progress on the detection and characterization of neXtProt PE2,3,4 "missing proteins" (MPs) with a mandate to each chromosome team to find about 50 MPs over 2 years. Here we report major progress toward the neXt-MP50 challenge with 43 newly validated Chr 17 PE1 proteins, of which 25 were based on mass spectrometry, 12 on protein-protein interactions, 3 on a combination of MS and PPI, and 3 with other types of data. Notable among these new PE1 proteins were five keratin-associated proteins, a single olfactory receptor, and five additional membrane-embedded proteins. We evaluate the prospects of finding the remaining 105 MPs coded for on Chr 17, focusing on mass spectrometry and protein-protein interaction approaches. We present a list of 35 prioritized MPs with specific approaches that may be used in further MS and PPI experimental studies. Additionally, we demonstrate how in silico studies can be used to capture individual peptides from major data repositories, documenting one MP that appears to be a strong candidate for PE1. We are close to our goal of finding 50 MPs for Chr 17.

Creation of Individual Scientific Concept-Centered Semantic Maps Based on Automated Text-Mining Analysis of PubMed

Concept-centered semantic maps were created based on a text-mining analysis of PubMed using the BiblioEngine_v2018 software. The objects ("concepts") of a semantic map can be MeSH-terms or other terms (names of proteins, diseases, chemical compounds, etc.) structured in the form of controlled vocabularies. The edges between the two objects were automatically calculated based on the index of semantic similarity, which is proportional to the number of publications related to both objects simultaneously. On the one hand, an individual semantic map created based on the already published papers allows us to trace scientific inquiry. On the other hand, a prospective analysis based on the study of PubMed search history enables us to determine the possible directions for future research.

Advances in the Chromosome-Centric Human Proteome Project: looking to the future

INTRODUCTION

The mission of the Chromosome-Centric Human Proteome Project (C-HPP), is to map and annotate the entire predicted human protein set (~20,000 proteins) encoded by each chromosome. The initial steps of the project are focused on 'missing proteins (MPs)', which lacked documented evidence for existence at protein level. In addition to remaining 2,579 MPs, we also target those annotated proteins having unknown functions, uPE1 proteins, alternative splice isoforms and post-translational modifications. We also consider how to investigate various protein functions involved in cis-regulatory phenomena, amplicons lncRNAs and smORFs. Areas covered: We will cover the scope, historic background, progress, challenges and future prospects of C-HPP. This review also addresses the question of how we can best improve the methodological approaches, select the optimal biological samples, and recommend stringent protocols for the identification and characterization of MPs. A new strategy for functional analysis of some of those annotated proteins having unknown function will also be discussed. Expert commentary: If the project moves well by reshaping the original goals, the current working modules and team work in the proposed extended planning period, it is anticipated that a progressively more detailed draft of an accurate chromosome-based proteome map will become available with functional information.