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Protein phosphorylation is a central regulatory mechanism of cell signaling pathways. This highly controlled biochemical process is involved in most cellular functions, and defects in protein kinases and phosphatases have been implicated in many diseases, highlighting the importance of understanding phosphorylation-mediated signaling networks. However, phosphorylation is a transient modification, and phosphorylated proteins are often less abundant. Therefore, the large-scale identification and quantification of phosphoproteins and their phosphorylation sites under different conditions are one of the most interesting and challenging tasks in the field of proteomics. Both 2D gel electrophoresis and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry serve as key phosphoproteomic technologies in combination with prefractionation, such as enrichment of phosphorylated proteins/peptides. Recently, new possibilities for quantitative phosphoproteomic analysis have been offered by technical advances in sample preparation, enrichment, separation, instrumentation, quantification and informatics. In this article, we present an overview of several strategies for quantitative phosphoproteomics and discuss how phosphoproteomic analysis can help to elucidate signaling pathways that regulate various cellular processes.

A protein subset expressed in the mouse embryonic stem (ES) cell line, E14-1, was characterized by mass spectrometry-based protein identification technology and data analysis. In total, 1790 proteins including 365 potential nuclear and 260 membrane proteins were identified from tryptic digests of total cell lysates. The subset contained a variety of proteins in terms of physicochemical characteristics, subcellular localization, and biological function as defined by Gene Ontology annotation groups. In addition to many housekeeping proteins found in common with other cell types, the subset contained a group of regulatory proteins that may determine unique ES cell functions. We identified 39 transcription factors including Oct-3/4, Sox-2, and undifferentiated embryonic cell transcription factor I, which are characteristic of ES cells, 88 plasma membrane proteins including cell surface markers such as CD9 and CD81, 44 potential proteinaceous ligands for cell surface receptors including growth factors, cytokines, and hormones, and 100 cell signaling molecules. The subset also contained the products of 60 ES-specific and 41 stemness genes defined previously by the DNA microarray analysis of Ramalho-Santos et al. (Ramalho-Santos et al., Science 2002, 298, 597-600), as well as a number of components characteristic of differentiated cell types such as hematopoietic and neural cells. We also identified potential post-translational modifications in a number of ES cell proteins including five Lys acetylation sites and a single phosphorylation site. To our knowledge, this study provides the largest proteomic dataset characterized to date for a single mammalian cell species, and serves as a basic catalogue of a major proteomic subset that is expressed in mouse ES cells.

In Swiss 3T3 fibroblasts, long-term stimulation with PDGF, but not insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) or EGF, results in the establishment of an elongated migratory phenotype, characterized by the formation of retractile dendritic protrusions and absence of actin stress fibers and focal adhesion complexes. To identify receptor tyrosine kinase-specific reorganization of the Swiss 3T3 proteome during phenotypic differentiation, we compared changes in the pattern of protein synthesis and phosphorylation during long-term exposure to PDGF, IGF-1, EGF, and their combinations using 2DE-based proteomics after (35)S- and (33)P-metabolic labeling. One hundred and five differentially regulated proteins were identified by mass spectrometry and some of these extensively validated. PDGF stimulation produced the highest overall rate of protein synthesis at any given time and induced the most sustained phospho-signaling. Simultaneous activation with two or three of the growth factors revealed both synergistic and antagonistic effects on protein synthesis and expression levels with PDGF showing dominance over both IGF-1 and EGF in generating distinct proteome compositions. Using signaling pathway inhibitors, PI3K was identified as an early site for signal diversification, with sustained activity of the PI3K/AKT pathway critical for regulating late protein synthesis and phosphorylation of target proteins and required for maintaining the PDGF-dependent motile phenotype. Several proteins were identified with novel PI3K/Akt-dependent synthesis and phosphorylations including eEF2, PRS7, RACK-1, acidic calponin, NAP1L1, Hsp73, and fascin. The data also reveal induction/suppression of key F-actin and actomyosin regulators and chaperonins that enable PDGFR to direct the assembly of a motile cytoskeleton, despite simultaneous antagonistic signaling activities. Together, the study demonstrates that long-term exposure to different growth factors results in receptor tyrosine kinase-specific regulation of relatively small subproteomes, and implies that the strength and longevity of receptor tyrosine kinase-specific signals are critical in defining the composition and functional activity of the resulting proteome.

We performed here MS-based cell surface proteome profiling of HCT-116 cells by two distinct methods based on biotin labeling and glycoprotein capturing. In total, 742 biotinylated and 219 glycosylated proteins were identified by the biotin labeling and glycoprotein capturing, of which 224 and 138 proteins known to be located on plasma membrane were included, respectively, according to ingenuity pathway analysis. Although 104 plasma membrane proteins were identified by both methods, the rest of 154 were identified only by one. Almost all the identified plasma membrane proteins possessed consensus N-glycosylation sites, and proteins having various numbers of glycosylation sites were identified by both methods. Thus, the discrepancies of the identified proteins obtained from those two methods might not be only due to the number of glycosylation sites, but also to the expression and/or glycosylation level of the cell surface proteins. We also identified 312 N-glycosylated proteins from xenograft samples by glycoprotein capturing of which 135 were known as plasma membrane proteins. Although a number of highly-expressed plasma membrane proteins were common between culture and xenograft cells, some proteins showed culture- or xenograft-specific expression, suggesting that those proteins might contribute to grow in different environment.

Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) can give rise to any adult cell type and thus offer enormous potential for regenerative medicine and drug discovery. Molecular biomarkers serve as valuable tools to classify and isolate ESCs and to monitor their differentiation state by antibody-based techniques. A number of biomarkers, such as certain cell surface antigens, are used to assign pluripotent ESCs; however, accumulating evidence suggests that ESCs are heterogeneous in morphology, phenotype and function, and are thereby classified into subpopulations characterized by multiple sets of molecular biomarkers. Biomarker discovery is also important for ESC biology to elucidate the molecular mechanisms that regulate pluripotency and differentiation. This review summarizes studies of ESC biomarker discovery. “Genome-wide” expression profiling of ESC mRNAs and proteins and direct analyses of the cell surface subproteome have demonstrated that ESCs express a diverse range of biomarkers, cell surface antigens, and signaling molecules found in different cell lineages, as well as a number of key molecules that assure “stemness”. Clearly, future quantitative proteomics approaches will enhance our knowledge of the stage- and lineage-specific expression of the proteome and its temporal changes upon differentiation, and provide a more detailed view of nascent and clonally amplified ESCs.

Although interactions between cell surface proteins and extracellular ligands are key to initiating embryonic stem cell differentiation to specific cell lineages, the plasma membrane protein components of these cells are largely unknown. We describe here a group of proteins expressed on the surface of the undifferentiated mouse embryonic stem cell line D3. These proteins were identified using a combination of cell surface labeling with biotin, subcellular fractionation of plasma membranes, and mass spectrometry-based protein identification technology. From 965 unique peptides carrying biotin labels, we assigned 324 proteins including 235 proteins that have putative signal sequences and/or transmembrane segments. Receptors, transporters, and cell adhesion molecules were the major classes of proteins identified. Besides known cell surface markers of embryonic stem cells, such as alkaline phosphatase, the analysis identified 59 clusters of differentiation-related molecules and more than 80 components of multiple cell signaling pathways that are characteristic of a number of different cell lineages. We identified receptors for leukemia-inhibitory factor, interleukin 6, and bone morphogenetic protein, which play critical roles in the maintenance of undifferentiated mouse embryonic stem cells. We also identified receptors for growth factors/cytokines, such as fibroblast growth factor, platelet-derived growth factor, ephrin, Hedgehog, and Wnt, which transduce signals for cell differentiation and embryonic development. Finally we identified a variety of integrins, cell adhesion molecules, and matrix metalloproteases. These results suggest that D3 cells express diverse cell surface proteins that function to maintain pluripotency, enabling cells to respond to various external signals that initiate differentiation into a variety of cell types.

PDGF is a potent chemotactic mitogen and a strong inductor of fibroblast motility. In Swiss 3T3 fibroblasts, exposure to PDGF but not EGF or IGF-1 causes a rapid loss of actin stress fibers (SFs) and focal adhesions (FAs), which is followed by the development of retractile dendritic protrusions and induction of motility. The PDGF-specific actin reorganization was blocked by inhibition of Src-kinase and the 26S proteasome. PDGF induced Src-dependent association between the multifunctional transcription/translation regulator hnRNP-K and the mRNA-encoding myosin regulatory light-chain (MRLC)-interacting protein (MIR), a E(3)-ubiquitin ligase that is MRLC specific. This in turn rapidly increased MIR expression, and led to ubiquitination and proteasome-mediated degradation of MRLC. Downregulation of MIR by RNA muting prevented the reorganization of actin structures and severely reduced the migratory and wound-healing potential of PDGF-treated cells. The results show that activation of MIR and the resulting removal of diphosphorylated MRLC are essential for PDGF to instigate and maintain control over the actin-myosin-based contractile system in Swiss 3T3 fibroblasts. The PDGF induced protein destabilization through the regulation of hnRNP-K controlled ubiquitin -ligase translation identifies a novel pathway by which external stimuli can regulate phenotypic development through rapid, organelle-specific changes in the activity and stability of cytoskeletal regulators.