Comparative proteomics analysis of three commercial tuna species through SWATH-MS based mass spectrometry and chemometrics.

The adulteration of tuna is found as attenuation of morphological characteristics during processing due to the exhaustion of tuna resource. The authenticity of tuna is now concentrated in the seafood supply chain. Protein, as the most important component of tuna muscle, plays a very important role in tuna. In this study, the protein relative quantitation of 3 commercial tuna species (skipjack tuna, bigeye tuna and yellowfin tuna) were revealed through the developed sequential window acquisition of all theoretical fragment ion mass spectra (SWATH-MS)-based proteomic analysis with 81 proteins being reliably quantified. Further protein biomarkers discovery was carried out by chemometrics, leading to 14 proteins screened as potential biomarkers. Hierarchical clustering analysis showed that the screened protein biomarkers have the ability to distinguish the 3 tuna species. Gene ontology (GO) annotation of the screened protein biomarkers most of them were relevant to molecular functions. • The protein profiles of 3 commercial tuna species were investigated. • The protein biomarkers were revealed by pairwise comparisons of the OPLS-DA models. • HCA showed that protein biomarkers were effective in species discrimination. • GO annotation revealed that most protein biomarkers were relevant to molecular functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]