JMSSJ On-line, Vol. 51 (2003) No. 5, pp. 499-503
Developmental Proteome Analysis of Caenorhabditis elegans
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    Takuji NABETANI *a), Yo TABUSE b), and Akira TSUGITA a), b)

    *a)TOKYO RIKA KIKAI Corporation, Proteomics Research Laboratory (1-16-1 Amakubo, Tsukuba 305-0005, Japan) b)NEC Corporation, Fundamental Research Laboratories, Proteomics Research Center (34 Miyukigaoka, Tsukuba 305-8501, Japan)
Animal development proceeds through harmonized expression of many genes. A small free-living soil nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans, has many advantages as a model organism and has been used to study the genetic program, operating in animal development. In recent years, exhaustive measurement of mRNA level using DNA microarray have been carried out in various biological systems, including C. elegans and have provided valuable information about gene expression during development. On the other hand, it is often pointed out that analyses of protein level might be rather critical, since the function of a gene is accomplished by the expressed protein. To identify proteins which are expressed differentially during development and to delineate the correlation of mRNA and protein expression in C. elegans, we have conducted differential two-dimensional electrophoresis of protein samples from the embryo to adult animal. Differential image analysis of gel patterns revealed that many proteins were expressed stage-specifically and they were analyzed with MALDI-TOF mass-spectrometry. In this report, we show the result of ten proteins which expressed mainly either in the embryo or in other developmental stages besides the embryo. Although expression patterns of most of them were found to be correlated with those of mRNA level, the expression pattern of DIM-1 protein is inconsistent with that of mRNA. The discrepancy between protein and mRNA levels found in our limited scale of experiment further strengthen the notion that gene expression does not always parallel with the expression of the corresponding protein.
Key words: MALDI-TOF/MS, Peptide mass fingerprinting,Two-dimensional electrophoresis, Developmental proteomics,Caenorhabditis elegans
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