Probing the global kinome and phosphoproteome in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii via sequential enrichment and quantitative proteomics

Key Proteomics Tools for Fundamental and Applied Microalgal Research

Microscopic, photosynthetic prokaryotes and eukaryotes, collectively referred to as microalgae, are widely studied to improve our understanding of key metabolic pathways (e.g., photosynthesis) and for the development of biotechnological applications. Omics technologies, which are now common tools in biological research, have been shown to be critical in microalgal research. In the past decade, significant technological advancements have allowed omics technologies to become more affordable and efficient, with huge datasets being generated. In particular, where studies focused on a single or few proteins decades ago, it is now possible to study the whole proteome of a microalgae. The development of mass spectrometry-based methods has provided this leap forward with the high-throughput identification and quantification of proteins. This review specifically provides an overview of the use of proteomics in fundamental (e.g., photosynthesis) and applied (e.g., lipid production for biofuel) microalgal research, and presents future research directions in this field.

Mapping the Protein Kinome: Current Strategy and Future Direction

The kinome includes over 500 different protein kinases, which form an integrated kinase network that regulates cellular phosphorylation signals. The kinome plays a central role in almost every cellular process and has strong linkages with many diseases. Thus, the evaluation of the cellular kinome in the physiological environment is essential to understand biological processes, disease development, and to target therapy. Currently, a number of strategies for kinome analysis have been developed, which are based on monitoring the phosphorylation of kinases or substrates. They have enabled researchers to tackle increasingly complex biological problems and pathological processes, and have promoted the development of kinase inhibitors. Additionally, with the increasing interest in how kinases participate in biological processes at spatial scales, it has become urgent to develop tools to estimate spatial kinome activity. With multidisciplinary efforts, a growing number of novel approaches have the potential to be applied to spatial kinome analysis. In this paper, we review the widely used methods used for kinome analysis and the challenges encountered in their applications. Meanwhile, potential approaches that may be of benefit to spatial kinome study are explored.

Hyperosmotic stress-induced microtubule disassembly in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

BACKGROUND

Land plants respond to drought and salinity by employing multitude of sophisticated mechanisms with physiological and developmental consequences. Abscisic acid-mediated signaling pathways have evolved as land plant ancestors explored their habitats toward terrestrial dry area, and now play major roles in hyperosmotic stress responses in flowering plants. Green algae living in fresh water habitat do not possess abscisic acid signaling pathways but need to cope with increasing salt concentrations or high osmolarity when challenged with adverse aquatic environment. Hyperosmotic stress responses in green algae are largely unexplored.

RESULTS

In this study, we characterized hyperosmotic stress-induced cytoskeletal responses in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, a fresh water green algae. The Chlamydomonas PROPYZAMIDE-HYPERSENSITEVE 1 (PHS1) tubulin kinase quickly and transiently phosphorylated a large proportion of cellular α-tubulin at Thr349 in G1 phase and during mitosis, which resulted in transient disassembly of microtubules, when challenged with > 0.2 M sorbitol or > 0.1 M NaCl. By using phs1 loss-of-function algal mutant cells, we demonstrated that transient microtubule destabilization by sorbitol did not affect cell growth in G1 phase but delayed mitotic cell cycle progression. Genome sequence analyses indicate that PHS1 genes evolved in ancestors of the Chlorophyta. Interestingly, PHS1 genes are present in all sequenced genomes of freshwater Chlorophyta green algae (including Chlamydomonas) but are absent in some marine algae of this phylum.

CONCLUSION

PHS1-mediated tubulin phosphorylation was found to be partly responsible for the efficient stress-responsive mitotic delay in Chlamydomonas cells. Ancient hyperosmotic stress-triggered cytoskeletal remodeling responses thus emerged when the PHS1 tubulin kinase gene evolved in freshwater green algae.

Comprehensive kinomic study via a chemical proteomic approach reveals kinome reprogramming in hepatocellular carcinoma tissues

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common cancers worldwide. Kinases are attractive therapeutic targets since they are commonly altered in cancers. Here, to identify kinases of potential therapeutic interest in HCC, a quantitative kinomic study of tumour and adjacent non-tumour liver tissues was performed using a chemical proteomics approach. In total, 124 kinases were found differentially expressed and they were distributed over all nine kinase groups. Exploration of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) data showed that the dysregulation of 45 kinases was correlated with poor prognosis in HCC patients. We then tested 11 inhibitors targeting 12 crucial protein kinases alone or in combination for their ability to inhibit cell growth in Hep3B and PLC/PRF/5 cell lines. Six inhibitors significantly reduced viability in both cell lines. Combination inhibition of polo-like kinase 1 (PLK1) and casein kinase 1 epsilon (CSNK1E) significantly induced growth arrest in both cell lines synergistically. In summary, our analysis presents the most complete view of kinome reprogramming in HCC and provides novel insight into crucial kinases in HCC and potential therapeutic targets for HCC treatment. Moreover, the identification of hundreds of differentially expressed kinases forms a rich resource for novel drug targets or diagnostic biomarker discovery. Data are available via ProteomeXchange (identifier PXD023806).

Inositol polyphosphates and target of rapamycin kinase signalling govern photosystem II protein phosphorylation and photosynthetic function under light stress in Chlamydomonas

Stress and nutrient availability influence cell proliferation through complex intracellular signalling networks. In a previous study it was found that pyro-inositol polyphosphates (InsP₇ and InsP₈ ) produced by VIP1 kinase, and target of rapamycin (TOR) kinase signalling interacted synergistically to control cell growth and lipid metabolism in the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. However, the relationship between InsPs and TOR was not completely elucidated. We used an in vivo assay for TOR activity together with global proteomic and phosphoproteomic analyses to assess differences between wild-type and vip1-1 in the presence and absence of rapamycin. We found that TOR signalling is more severely affected by the inhibitor rapamycin in a vip1-1 mutant compared with wild-type, indicating that InsP₇ and InsP₈ produced by VIP1 act independently but also coordinately with TOR. Additionally, among hundreds of differentially phosphorylated peptides detected, an enrichment for photosynthesis-related proteins was observed, particularly photosystem II proteins. The significance of these results was underscored by the finding that vip1-1 strains show multiple defects in photosynthetic physiology that were exacerbated under high light conditions. These results suggest a novel role for inositol pyrophosphates and TOR signalling in coordinating photosystem phosphorylation patterns in Chlamydomonas cells in response to light stress and possibly other stresses.

IreK-Mediated, Cell Wall-Protective Phosphorylation in Enterococcus faecalis

Enterococcus faecalis is a Gram-positive bacterium that is a major cause of hospital-acquired infections due, in part, to its intrinsic resistance to cell wall-active antimicrobials. One critical determinant of this resistance is the transmembrane kinase IreK, which belongs to the penicillin-binding protein and serine/threonine kinase-associated kinase family of bacterial signaling proteins involved with the regulation of cell wall homeostasis. The activity of IreK is enhanced in response to cell wall stress, but direct substrates of IreK phosphorylation, leading to antimicrobial resistance, are largely unknown. To better understand stress-modulated phosphorylation events contributing to antimicrobial resistance, wild type E. faecalis cells treated with cell wall-active antimicrobials, chlorhexidine or ceftriaxone, were examined via phosphoproteomics. Among the most prominent changes was increased phosphorylation of divisome components after both treatments, suggesting that E. faecalis modulates cell division in response to cell wall stress. Phosphorylation mediated by IreK was then determined via a similar analysis with a E. faecalis ΔireK mutant strain, revealing potential IreK substrates involved with the regulation of peptidoglycan biosynthesis and within the E. faecalis CroS/R two-component system, another signal transduction pathway that promotes antimicrobial resistance. These results reveal critical insights into the biological functions of IreK.

A deep learning based approach for prediction of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii phosphorylation sites

Protein phosphorylation, which is one of the most important post-translational modifications (PTMs), is involved in regulating myriad cellular processes. Herein, we present a novel deep learning based approach for organism-specific protein phosphorylation site prediction in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, a model algal phototroph. An ensemble model combining convolutional neural networks and long short-term memory (LSTM) achieves the best performance in predicting phosphorylation sites in C. reinhardtii. Deemed Chlamy-EnPhosSite, the measured best AUC and MCC are 0.90 and 0.64 respectively for a combined dataset of serine (S) and threonine (T) in independent testing higher than those measures for other predictors. When applied to the entire C. reinhardtii proteome (totaling 1,809,304 S and T sites), Chlamy-EnPhosSite yielded 499,411 phosphorylated sites with a cut-off value of 0.5 and 237,949 phosphorylated sites with a cut-off value of 0.7. These predictions were compared to an experimental dataset of phosphosites identified by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) in a blinded study and approximately 89.69% of 2,663 C. reinhardtii S and T phosphorylation sites were successfully predicted by Chlamy-EnPhosSite at a probability cut-off of 0.5 and 76.83% of sites were successfully identified at a more stringent 0.7 cut-off. Interestingly, Chlamy-EnPhosSite also successfully predicted experimentally confirmed phosphorylation sites in a protein sequence (e.g., RPS6 S245) which did not appear in the training dataset, highlighting prediction accuracy and the power of leveraging predictions to identify biologically relevant PTM sites. These results demonstrate that our method represents a robust and complementary technique for high-throughput phosphorylation site prediction in C. reinhardtii. It has potential to serve as a useful tool to the community. Chlamy-EnPhosSite will contribute to the understanding of how protein phosphorylation influences various biological processes in this important model microalga.

Photosynthetic Metabolism and Nitrogen Reshuffling Are Regulated by Reversible Cysteine Thiol Oxidation Following Nitrogen Deprivation in Chlamydomonas

As global temperatures climb to historic highs, the far-reaching effects of climate change have impacted agricultural nutrient availability. This has extended to low latitude oceans, where a deficit in both nitrogen and phosphorus stores has led to dramatic decreases in carbon sequestration in oceanic phytoplankton. Although Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, a freshwater model green alga, has shown drastic systems-level alterations following nitrogen deprivation, the mechanisms through which these alterations are triggered and regulated are not fully understood. This study examined the role of reversible oxidative signaling in the nitrogen stress response of C. reinhardtii. Using oxidized cysteine resin-assisted capture enrichment coupled with label-free quantitative proteomics, 7889 unique oxidized cysteine thiol identifiers were quantified, with 231 significantly changing peptides from 184 proteins following 2 h of nitrogen deprivation. These results demonstrate that the cellular response to nitrogen assimilation, photosynthesis, pigment biosynthesis, and lipid metabolism are regulated by reversible oxidation. An enhanced role of non-damaging oxidative pathways is observed throughout the photosynthetic apparatus that provides a framework for further analysis in phototrophs.

Identification of the MAPK Cascade and its Relationship with Nitrogen Metabolism in the Green Alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

The mitogen activated protein kinases (MAPKs) form part of a signaling cascade through phosphorylation reactions conserved in all eukaryotic organisms. The MAPK cascades are mainly composed by three proteins, MAPKKKs, MAPKKs and MAPKs. Some signals induce MAPKKK-mediated phosphorylation and activation of MAPKK that phosphorylate and activate MAPK. Afterward, MAPKs can act either in the cytoplasm or be imported into the nucleus to activate other proteins or transcription factors. In the green microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii the pathway for nitrogen (N) assimilation is well characterized, yet its regulation still has many unknown features. Nitric oxide (NO) is a fundamental signal molecule for N regulation, where nitrate reductase (NR) plays a central role in its synthesis. The MAPK cascades could be regulating N assimilation, since it has been described that the phosphorylation of NR by MAPK6 promotes NO production in Arabidopsis thaliana. We have identified the proteins involved in the MAPK cascades in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, finding 17 MAPKs, 2 MAPKKs and 108 MAPKKKs (11 MEKK-, 94 RAF- and 3 ZIK-type) that have been structurally and phylogenetically characterized. The genetic expressions of MAPKs and the MAPKK were slightly regulated by N. However, the genetic expressions of MAPKKKs RAF14 and RAF79 showed a very strong repression by ammonium, which suggests that they may have a key role in the regulation of N assimilation, encouraging to further analyze in detail the role of MAPK cascades in the regulation of N metabolism.

Label-Free Quantitative Phosphoproteomics for Algae

The unicellular alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is a model photosynthetic organism for the study of microalgal processes. Along with genomic and transcriptomic studies, proteomic analysis of Chlamydomonas has led to an increased understanding of its metabolic signaling as well as a growing interest in the elucidation of its phosphorylation networks. To this end, mass spectrometry-based proteomics has made great strides in large-scale protein quantitation as well as analysis of posttranslational modifications (PTMs) in a high-throughput manner. An accurate quantification of dynamic PTMs, such as phosphorylation, requires high reproducibility and sensitivity due to the substoichiometric levels of modified peptides, which can make depth of coverage challenging. Here we present a method using TiO₂-based phosphopeptide enrichment paired with label-free LC-MS/MS for phosphoproteome quantification. Three technical replicate samples in Chlamydomonas were processed and analyzed using this approach, quantifying a total of 1775 phosphoproteins with a total of 3595 phosphosites. With a median CV of 21% across quantified phosphopeptides, implementation of this method for differential studies provides highly reproducible analysis of phosphorylation events. While the culturing and extraction methods used are specific to facilitate coverage in algal species, this approach is widely applicable and can easily extend beyond algae to other photosynthetic organisms with minor modifications.

Unbiased phosphoproteome profiling uncovers novel phosphoproteins and phosphorylation motifs in bermudagrass stolons

As a widely used turfgrass species, bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon L.) can be easily propagated through colonial growth of stolons. Previous studies collectively revealed that exotic environmental factors and intrinsic hormones and genes are all involved in the differentiation, development, and diageotropical growth of stolons. However, the detailed molecular mechanism how environmental and hormone signals regulate the gene expression and biochemical activities in bermudagrass stolons remains unclear. In this study, we observed that reversible phosphorylation modification plays important roles in normal growth and physiological functions of bermudagrass stolons. LC-MS/MS analyses of the total protein extracts of bermudagrass stolons without preliminary phosphopeptide-enrichment successfully identified 646 nonredundant phosphorylation sites and 485 phosphoproteins. The phosphoproteins were significantly enriched in protein phosphorylation regulation and starch metabolism processes. Motif-X analyses further revealed that phosphoproteins containing novel phosphorylation motifs might be involved in transcription regulation of bermudagrass stolons. These results greatly expanded our understanding of the growth and development of bermudagrass stolons at the post-translational level.

Evaluation of linear models and missing value imputation for the analysis of peptide-centric proteomics

BACKGROUND

Several methods to handle data generated from bottom-up proteomics via liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, particularly for peptide-centric quantification dealing with post-translational modification (PTM) analysis like reversible cysteine oxidation are evaluated. The paper proposes a pipeline based on the R programming language to analyze PTMs from peptide-centric label-free quantitative proteomics data.

RESULTS

Our methodology includes variance stabilization, normalization, and missing data imputation to account for the large dynamic range of PTM measurements. It also corrects biases from an enrichment protocol and reduces the random and systematic errors associated with label-free quantification. The performance of the methodology is tested by performing proteome-wide differential PTM quantitation using linear models analysis (limma). We objectively compare two imputation methods along with significance testing when using multiple-imputation for missing data.

CONCLUSION

Identifying PTMs in large-scale datasets is a problem with distinct characteristics that require new methods for handling missing data imputation and differential proteome analysis. Linear models in combination with multiple-imputation could significantly outperform a t-test-based decision method.

Genome-wide identification and characterization of CKIN/SnRK gene family in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

The SnRK (Snf1-Related protein Kinase) gene family plays an important role in energy sensing and stress-adaptive responses in plant systems. In this study, Chlamydomonas CKIN family (SnRK in Arabidopsis) was defined after a genome-wide analysis of all sequenced Chlorophytes. Twenty-two sequences were defined as plant SnRK orthologs in Chlamydomonas and classified into two subfamilies: CKIN1 and CKIN2. While CKIN1 subfamily is reduced to one conserved member and a close protein (CKIN1L), a large CKIN2 subfamily clusters both plant-like and algae specific CKIN2s. The responsiveness of these genes to abiotic stress situations was tested by RT-qPCR. Results showed that almost all elements were sensitive to osmotic stress while showing different degrees of sensibility to other abiotic stresses, as occurs in land plants, revealing their specialization and the family pleiotropy for some elements. The regulatory pathway of this family may differ from land plants since these sequences shows unique regulatory features and some of them are sensitive to ABA, despite conserved ABA receptors (PYR/PYL/RCAR) and regulatory domains are not present in this species. Core Chlorophytes and land plant showed divergent stress signalling, but SnRKs/CKINs share the same role in cell survival and stress response and adaption including the accumulation of specific biomolecules. This fact places the CKIN family as well-suited target for bioengineering-based studies in microalgae (accumulation of sugars, lipids, secondary metabolites), while promising new findings in stress biology and specially in the evolution of ABA-signalling mechanisms.

Investigating the effect of target of rapamycin kinase inhibition on the Chlamydomonas reinhardtii phosphoproteome: from known homologs to new targets

Target of rapamycin (TOR) kinase is a conserved regulator of cell growth whose activity is modulated in response to nutrients, energy and stress. Key proteins involved in the pathway are conserved in the model photosynthetic microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, but the substrates of TOR kinase and downstream signaling network have not been elucidated. Our study provides a new resource for investigating the phosphorylation networks governed by the TOR kinase pathway in Chlamydomonas. We used quantitative phosphoproteomics to investigate the effects of inhibiting Chlamydomonas TOR kinase on dynamic protein phosphorylation. Wild-type and AZD-insensitive Chlamydomonas strains were treated with TOR-specific chemical inhibitors (rapamycin, AZD8055 and Torin1), after which differentially affected phosphosites were identified. Our quantitative phosphoproteomic dataset comprised 2547 unique phosphosites from 1432 different proteins. Inhibition of TOR kinase caused significant quantitative changes in phosphorylation at 258 phosphosites, from 219 unique phosphopeptides. Our results include Chlamydomonas homologs of TOR signaling-related proteins, including a site on RPS6 with a decrease in phosphorylation. Additionally, phosphosites on proteins involved in translation and carotenoid biosynthesis were identified. Follow-up experiments guided by these phosphoproteomic findings in lycopene beta/epsilon cyclase showed that carotenoid levels are affected by TORC1 inhibition and carotenoid production is under TOR control in algae.

Artificial Intelligence Understands Peptide Observability and Assists With Absolute Protein Quantification

Targeted mass spectrometry has become the method of choice to gain absolute quantification information of high quality, which is essential for a quantitative understanding of biological systems. However, the design of absolute protein quantification assays remains challenging due to variations in peptide observability and incomplete knowledge about factors influencing peptide detectability. Here, we present a deep learning algorithm for peptide detectability prediction, d::pPop, which allows the informed selection of synthetic proteotypic peptides for the successful design of targeted proteomics quantification assays. The deep neural network is able to learn a regression model that relates the physicochemical properties of a peptide to its ion intensity detected by mass spectrometry. The approach makes use of experimentally detected deviations from the assumed equimolar abundance of all peptides derived from a given protein. Trained on extensive proteomics datasets, d::pPop's plant and non-plant specific models can predict the quality of proteotypic peptides for not yet experimentally identified proteins. Interrogating the deep neural network after learning from ~76,000 peptides per model organism allows to investigate the impact of different physicochemical properties on the observability of a peptide, thus providing insights into peptide observability as a multifaceted process. Empirical evaluation with rank accuracy metrics showed that our prediction approach outperforms existing algorithms. We circumvent the delicate step of selecting positive and negative training sets and at the same time also more closely reflect the need for selecting the top most promising peptides for targeting a protein of interest. Further, we used an artificial QconCAT protein to experimentally validate the observability prediction. Our proteotypic peptide prediction approach not only facilitates the design of absolute protein quantification assays via a user-friendly web interface but also enables the selection of proteotypic peptides for not yet observed proteins, hence rendering the tool especially useful for plant research.

Monitoring of Plant Protein Post-translational Modifications Using Targeted Proteomics

Protein post-translational modifications (PTMs) are among the fastest and earliest of plant responses to changes in the environment, making the mechanisms and dynamics of PTMs an important area of plant science. One of the most studied PTMs is protein phosphorylation. This review summarizes the use of targeted proteomics for the elucidation of the biological functioning of plant PTMs, and focuses primarily on phosphorylation. Since phosphorylated peptides have a low abundance, usually complex enrichment protocols are required for their research. Initial identification is usually performed with discovery phosphoproteomics, using high sensitivity mass spectrometers, where as many phosphopeptides are measured as possible. Once a PTM site is identified, biological characterization can be addressed with targeted proteomics. In targeted proteomics, Selected/Multiple Reaction Monitoring (S/MRM) is traditionally coupled to simple, standard protein digestion protocols, often omitting the enrichment step, and relying on triple-quadruple mass spectrometer. The use of synthetic peptides as internal standards allows accurate identification, avoiding cross-reactivity typical for some antibody based approaches. Importantly, internal standards allow absolute peptide quantitation, reported down to 0.1 femtomoles, also useful for determination of phospho-site occupancy. S/MRM is advantageous in situations where monitoring and diagnostics of peptide PTM status is needed for many samples, as it has faster sample processing times, higher throughput than other approaches, and excellent quantitation and reproducibility. Furthermore, the number of publicly available data-bases with plant PTM discovery data is growing, facilitating selection of modified peptides and design of targeted proteomics workflows. Recent instrument developments result in faster scanning times, inclusion of ion-trap instruments leading to parallel reaction monitoring- which further facilitates S/MRM experimental design. Finally, recent combination of data independent and data dependent spectra acquisition means that in addition to anticipated targeted data, spectra can now be queried for unanticipated information. The potential for future applications in plant biology is outlined.

Exploring intrinsically disordered proteins in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

The content of intrinsically disordered protein (IDP) is related to organism complexity, evolution, and regulation. In the Plantae, despite their high complexity, experimental investigation of IDP content is lacking. We identified by mass spectrometry 682 heat-resistant proteins from the green alga, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Using a phosphoproteome database, we found that 331 of these proteins are targets of phosphorylation. We analyzed the flexibility propensity of the heat-resistant proteins and their specific features as well as those of predicted IDPs from the same organism. Their mean percentage of disorder was about 20%. Most of the IDPs (~70%) were addressed to other compartments than mitochondrion and chloroplast. Their amino acid composition was biased compared to other classic IDPs. Their molecular functions were diverse; the predominant ones were nucleic acid binding and unfolded protein binding and the less abundant one was catalytic activity. The most represented proteins were ribosomal proteins, proteins associated to flagella, chaperones and histones. We also found CP12, the only experimental IDP from C. reinhardtii that is referenced in disordered protein database. This is the first experimental investigation of IDPs in C. reinhardtii that also combines in silico analysis.

The phosphorylated redox proteome of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii: Revealing novel means for regulation of protein structure and function

Post-translational modifications (PTMs) are covalent modifications to protein residues which may alter both conformation and activity, thereby modulating signaling and metabolic processes. While PTMs have been largely investigated independently, examination into how different modification interact, or crosstalk, will reveal a more complete understanding of the reciprocity of signaling cascades across numerous pathways. Combinatorial reversible thiol oxidation and phosphorylation in eukaryotes is largely recognized, but rigorous approaches for experimental discovery are underdeveloped. To begin meaningful interrogation of PTM crosstalk in systems biology research, knowledge of targeted proteins must be advanced. Herein, we demonstrate protein-level enrichment of reversibly oxidized proteoforms in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii with subsequent phosphopeptide analysis to determine the extent of phosphorylation in the redox thiol proteome. Label-free quantification was used to quantify 3353 oxidized Cys-sites on 1457 enriched proteins, where sequential phosphopeptide enrichment measured 1094 sites of phosphorylation on 720 proteins with 23% (172 proteins) also identified as reversibly oxidized. Proteins identified with both reversible oxidation and phosphorylation were involved in signaling transduction, ribosome and translation-related machinery, and metabolic pathways. Several redox-modified Calvin-Benson cycle proteins were found phosphorylated and many kinases/phosphatases involved in phosphorylation-dependent photosynthetic state transition and stress-response pathways had sites of reversible oxidation. Identification of redox proteins serves as a crucial element in understanding stress response in photosynthetic organisms and beyond, whereby knowing the ensemble of modifications co-occurring with oxidation highlights novel mechanisms for cellular control.

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Quantified reversible oxidation on protein cysteine residues.

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Sequential phosphopeptide enrichment to define the phosphorylated redox proteome.

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Found >3000 oxidized cysteines and >1000 phosphosites in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.

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Co-modified proteins discovered across diverse metabolic and signaling pathways.

Dynamics of lipids and metabolites during the cell cycle of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

Metabolites and lipids are the final products of enzymatic processes, distinguishing the different cellular functions and activities of single cells or whole tissues. Understanding these cellular functions within a well-established model system requires a systemic collection of molecular and physiological information. In the current report, the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii was selected to establish a comprehensive workflow for the detailed multi-omics analysis of a synchronously growing cell culture system. After implementation and benchmarking of the synchronous cell culture, a two-phase extraction method was adopted for the analysis of proteins, lipids, metabolites and starch from a single sample aliquot of as little as 10-15 million Chlamydomonas cells. In a proof of concept study, primary metabolites and lipids were sampled throughout the diurnal cell cycle. The results of these time-resolved measurements showed that single compounds were not only coordinated with each other in different pathways, but that these complex metabolic signatures have the potential to be used as biomarkers of various cellular processes. Taken together, the developed workflow, including the synchronized growth of the photoautotrophic cell culture, in combination with comprehensive extraction methods and detailed metabolic phenotyping has the potential for use in in-depth analysis of complex cellular processes, providing essential information for the understanding of complex biological systems.

Measuring Kinase Activity-A Global Challenge

The kinase enzymes within a cell, known collectively as the kinome, play crucial roles in many signaling pathways, including survival, motility, differentiation, stress response, and many more. Aberrant signaling through kinase pathways is often linked to cancer, among other diseases. A major area of scientific research involves understanding the relationships between kinases, their targets, and how the kinome adapts to perturbations of the cellular system. This review will discuss many of the current and developing methods for studying kinase activity, and evaluate their applications, advantages, and disadvantages. J. Cell. Biochem. 118: 3595-3606, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Kinome Profiling Identifies Druggable Targets for Novel Human Cytomegalovirus (HCMV) Antivirals

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a significant cause of disease in immune-compromised adults and immune naïve newborns. No vaccine exists to prevent HCMV infection, and current antiviral therapies have toxic side effects that limit the duration and intensity of their use. There is thus an urgent need for new strategies to treat HCMV infection. Repurposing existing drugs as antivirals is an attractive approach to limit the time and cost of new antiviral drug development. Virus-induced changes in infected cells are often driven by changes in cellular kinase activity, which led us to hypothesize that defining the complement of kinases (the kinome), whose abundance or expression is altered during infection would identify existing kinase inhibitors that could be repurposed as new antivirals. To this end, we applied a kinase capture technique, multiplexed kinase inhibitor bead-mass spectrometry (MIB-MS) kinome, to quantitatively measure perturbations in >240 cellular kinases simultaneously in cells infected with a laboratory-adapted (AD169) or clinical (TB40E) HCMV strain. MIB-MS profiling identified time-dependent increases and decreases in MIB binding of multiple kinases including cell cycle kinases, receptor tyrosine kinases, and mitotic kinases. Based on the kinome data, we tested the antiviral effects of kinase inhibitors and other compounds, several of which are in clinical use or development. Using a novel flow cytometry-based assay and a fluorescent reporter virus we identified three compounds that inhibited HCMV replication with IC50 values of <1 μm, and at doses that were not toxic to uninfected cells. The most potent inhibitor of HCMV replication was OTSSP167 (IC50 <1.2 nm), a MELK inhibitor, blocked HCMV early gene expression and viral DNA accumulation, resulting in a >3 log decrease in virus replication. These results show the utility of MIB-MS kinome profiling for identifying existing kinase inhibitors that can potentially be repurposed as novel antiviral drugs.