1
|
Khan S, Conover R, Asthagiri AR, Slavov N. Dynamics of Single-Cell Protein Covariation during Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition. J Proteome Res 2024. [PMID: 38663020 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jproteome.4c00277] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/02/2024]
Abstract
Physiological processes, such as the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), are mediated by changes in protein interactions. These changes may be better reflected in protein covariation within a cellular cluster than in the temporal dynamics of cluster-average protein abundance. To explore this possibility, we quantified proteins in single human cells undergoing EMT. Covariation analysis of the data revealed that functionally coherent protein clusters dynamically changed their protein-protein correlations without concomitant changes in the cluster-average protein abundance. These dynamics of protein-protein correlations were monotonic in time and delineated protein modules functioning in actin cytoskeleton organization, energy metabolism, and protein transport. These protein modules are defined by protein covariation within the same time point and cluster and, thus, reflect biological regulation masked by the cluster-average protein dynamics. Thus, protein correlation dynamics across single cells offers a window into protein regulation during physiological transitions.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Saad Khan
- Department of Bioengineering, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, United States
- Department of Biology, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, United States
| | - Rachel Conover
- Department of Bioengineering, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, United States
| | - Anand R Asthagiri
- Department of Bioengineering, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, United States
- Department of Biology, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, United States
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, United States
| | - Nikolai Slavov
- Department of Bioengineering, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, United States
- Department of Biology, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, United States
- Parallel Squared Technology Institute, Watertown, Massachusetts 02472, United States
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Abstract
Accurate protein quantification is key to identifying protein markers, regulatory relationships between proteins, and pathophysiological mechanisms. Realizing this potential requires sensitive and deep protein analysis of a large number of samples. Toward this goal, proteomics throughput can be increased by parallelizing the analysis of both precursors and samples using multiplexed data independent acquisition (DIA) implemented by the plexDIA framework: https://plexDIA.slavovlab.net. Here we demonstrate the improved precisions of retention time estimates within plexDIA and how this enables more accurate protein quantification. plexDIA has demonstrated multiplicative gains in throughput, and these gains may be substantially amplified by improving the multiplexing reagents, data acquisition, and interpretation. We discuss future directions for advancing plexDIA, which include engineering optimized mass-tags for high-plexDIA, introducing isotopologous carriers, and developing algorithms that utilize the regular structures of plexDIA data to improve sensitivity, proteome coverage, and quantitative accuracy. These advances in plexDIA will increase the throughput of functional proteomic assays, including quantifying protein conformations, turnover dynamics, modifications states and activities. The sensitivity of these assays will extend to single-cell analysis, thus enabling functional single-cell protein analysis.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jason Derks
- Departments of Bioengineering, Biology, Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Single Cell Proteomics Center, and Barnett Institute, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, United States
| | - Nikolai Slavov
- Departments of Bioengineering, Biology, Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Single Cell Proteomics Center, and Barnett Institute, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, United States
- Parallel Squared Technology Institute, Watertown, Massachusetts 02472, United States
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
MacCoss MJ, Alfaro JA, Faivre DA, Wu CC, Wanunu M, Slavov N. Sampling the proteome by emerging single-molecule and mass spectrometry methods. Nat Methods 2023; 20:339-346. [PMID: 36899164 PMCID: PMC10044470 DOI: 10.1038/s41592-023-01802-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 21.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/12/2023]
Abstract
Mammalian cells have about 30,000-fold more protein molecules than mRNA molecules, which has major implications in the development of proteomics technologies. We review strategies that have been helpful for counting billions of protein molecules by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) and suggest that these strategies can benefit single-molecule methods, especially in mitigating the challenges of the wide dynamic range of the proteome.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Michael J MacCoss
- Department of Genome Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
| | - Javier Antonio Alfaro
- International Centre for Cancer Vaccine Science, University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk, Poland.
- Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
- School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
| | - Danielle A Faivre
- Department of Genome Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Christine C Wu
- Department of Genome Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Meni Wanunu
- Department of Physics, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Nikolai Slavov
- Departments of Bioengineering, Biology, Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Single Cell Proteomics Center and Barnett Institute, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA.
- Parallel Squared Technology Institute, Watertown, MA, USA.
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Gatto L, Aebersold R, Cox J, Demichev V, Derks J, Emmott E, Franks AM, Ivanov AR, Kelly RT, Khoury L, Leduc A, MacCoss MJ, Nemes P, Perlman DH, Petelski AA, Rose CM, Schoof EM, Van Eyk J, Vanderaa C, Yates JR, Slavov N. Initial recommendations for performing, benchmarking and reporting single-cell proteomics experiments. Nat Methods 2023; 20:375-386. [PMID: 36864200 PMCID: PMC10130941 DOI: 10.1038/s41592-023-01785-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 39.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/06/2022] [Accepted: 01/24/2023] [Indexed: 03/04/2023]
Abstract
Analyzing proteins from single cells by tandem mass spectrometry (MS) has recently become technically feasible. While such analysis has the potential to accurately quantify thousands of proteins across thousands of single cells, the accuracy and reproducibility of the results may be undermined by numerous factors affecting experimental design, sample preparation, data acquisition and data analysis. We expect that broadly accepted community guidelines and standardized metrics will enhance rigor, data quality and alignment between laboratories. Here we propose best practices, quality controls and data-reporting recommendations to assist in the broad adoption of reliable quantitative workflows for single-cell proteomics. Resources and discussion forums are available at https://single-cell.net/guidelines .
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Laurent Gatto
- Computational Biology and Bioinformatics Unit, de Duve Institute, Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Ruedi Aebersold
- Department of Biology, Institute of Molecular Systems Biology, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Juergen Cox
- Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Martinsried, Germany
| | | | - Jason Derks
- Departments of Bioengineering, Biology, Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Single-Cell Proteomics Center and Barnett Institute, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Edward Emmott
- Centre for Proteome Research, Department of Biochemistry and Systems Biology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
| | - Alexander M Franks
- Department of Statistics and Applied Probability, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA
| | - Alexander R Ivanov
- Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Barnett Institute of Chemical and Biological Analysis, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Ryan T Kelly
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, USA
| | - Luke Khoury
- Departments of Bioengineering, Biology, Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Single-Cell Proteomics Center and Barnett Institute, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Andrew Leduc
- Departments of Bioengineering, Biology, Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Single-Cell Proteomics Center and Barnett Institute, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA
| | | | - Peter Nemes
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
| | - David H Perlman
- Merck Exploratory Science Center, Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp., Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Aleksandra A Petelski
- Departments of Bioengineering, Biology, Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Single-Cell Proteomics Center and Barnett Institute, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA
- Parallel Squared Technology Institute, Watertown, MA, USA
| | - Christopher M Rose
- Department of Microchemistry, Proteomics and Lipidomics, Genentech Inc., South San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Erwin M Schoof
- Department of Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark
| | | | - Christophe Vanderaa
- Computational Biology and Bioinformatics Unit, de Duve Institute, Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
| | - John R Yates
- Departments of Molecular Medicine and Neurobiology, the Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - Nikolai Slavov
- Departments of Bioengineering, Biology, Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Single-Cell Proteomics Center and Barnett Institute, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA.
- Parallel Squared Technology Institute, Watertown, MA, USA.
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Leduc A, Huffman RG, Cantlon J, Khan S, Slavov N. Exploring functional protein covariation across single cells using nPOP. Genome Biol 2022; 23:261. [PMID: 36527135 PMCID: PMC9756690 DOI: 10.1186/s13059-022-02817-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 44] [Impact Index Per Article: 22.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/14/2022] [Accepted: 11/18/2022] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Many biological processes, such as cell division cycle and drug resistance, are reflected in protein covariation across single cells. This covariation can be quantified and interpreted by single-cell mass spectrometry with sufficiently high throughput and accuracy. RESULTS Here, we describe nPOP, a method that enables simultaneous sample preparation of thousands of single cells, including lysing, digesting, and labeling individual cells in volumes of 8-20 nl. nPOP uses piezo acoustic dispensing to isolate individual cells in 300 pl volumes and performs all subsequent sample preparation steps in small droplets on a fluorocarbon-coated glass slide. Protein covariation analysis identifies cell cycle dynamics that are similar and dynamics that differ between cell types, even within subpopulations of melanoma cells delineated by markers for drug resistance priming. Melanoma cells expressing these markers accumulate in the G1 phase of the cell cycle, display distinct protein covariation across the cell cycle, accumulate glycogen, and have lower abundance of glycolytic enzymes. The non-primed melanoma cells exhibit gradients of protein abundance, suggesting transition states. Within this subpopulation, proteins functioning in oxidative phosphorylation covary with each other and inversely with proteins functioning in glycolysis. This protein covariation suggests divergent reliance on energy sources and its association with other biological functions. These results are validated by different mass spectrometry methods. CONCLUSIONS nPOP enables flexible, automated, and highly parallelized sample preparation for single-cell proteomics. This allows for quantifying protein covariation across thousands of single cells and revealing functionally concerted biological differences between closely related cell states. Support for nPOP is available at https://scp.slavovlab.net/nPOP .
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Andrew Leduc
- grid.261112.70000 0001 2173 3359Departments of Bioengineering, Biology, Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Single Cell Proteomics Center, and Barnett Institute, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115 USA
| | - R. Gray Huffman
- grid.261112.70000 0001 2173 3359Departments of Bioengineering, Biology, Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Single Cell Proteomics Center, and Barnett Institute, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115 USA
| | | | - Saad Khan
- grid.261112.70000 0001 2173 3359Departments of Bioengineering, Biology, Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Single Cell Proteomics Center, and Barnett Institute, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115 USA
| | - Nikolai Slavov
- grid.261112.70000 0001 2173 3359Departments of Bioengineering, Biology, Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Single Cell Proteomics Center, and Barnett Institute, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115 USA
| |
Collapse
|