Profiling Thiol Redox Proteome Using Isotope Tagging Mass Spectrometry

Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato strain DC3000 not only causes bacterial speck disease in Solanum lycopersicum but also on Brassica species, as well as on Arabidopsis thaliana, a genetically tractable host plant(1,2). The accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in cotyledons inoculated with DC3000 indicates a role of ROS in modulating necrotic cell death during bacterial speck disease of tomato(3). Hydrogen peroxide, a component of ROS, is produced after inoculation of tomato plants with Pseudomonas(3). Hydrogen peroxide can be detected using a histochemical stain 3'-3' diaminobenzidine (DAB)(4). DAB staining reacts with hydrogen peroxide to produce a brown stain on the leaf tissue(4). ROS has a regulatory role of the cellular redox environment, which can change the redox status of certain proteins(5). Cysteine is an important amino acid sensitive to redox changes. Under mild oxidation, reversible oxidation of cysteine sulfhydryl groups serves as redox sensors and signal transducers that regulate a variety of physiological processes(6,7). Tandem mass tag (TMT) reagents enable concurrent identification and multiplexed quantitation of proteins in different samples using tandem mass spectrometry(8,9). The cysteine-reactive TMT (cysTMT) reagents enable selective labeling and relative quantitation of cysteine-containing peptides from up to six biological samples. Each isobaric cysTMT tag has the same nominal parent mass and is composed of a sulfhydryl-reactive group, a MS-neutral spacer arm and an MS/MS reporter(10). After labeling, the samples were subject to protease digestion. The cysteine-labeled peptides were enriched using a resin containing anti-TMT antibody. During MS/MS analysis, a series of reporter ions (i.e., 126-131 Da) emerge in the low mass region, providing information on relative quantitation. The workflow is effective for reducing sample complexity, improving dynamic range and studying cysteine modifications. Here we present redox proteomic analysis of the Pst DC3000 treated tomato (Rio Grande) leaves using cysTMT technology. This high-throughput method has the potential to be applied to studying other redox-regulated physiological processes.