Organellar Proteomics: Close Insights into the Spatial Breakdown and Functional Dynamics of Plant Primary Metabolism

Abstract

The proteomes of cells, cellular compartments or fl uids are mirrors of their functions and the changes detectable in these proteomes have direct impact on their physiology. Proteomics aims at identifying the components of a target proteome as well as characterizing its dynam-ics, but it is not restricted to the mere identifi cation and quantitation of proteins. Because of their ability to modulate enzymatic activity, the analysis of post-translational modifi cations (PTMs) produces information on the regulation of cell physiology beyond the level of pro-tein abundance. In the past, plant proteome analyses were dominated by studies performed on Arabidopsis thaliana, while other plants such as spinach, tobacco and rice were only of minor importance. The focus on Arabidopsis is mostly due to the high quality of publicly available genome data, a major pillar of mass spectrometry based identifi cation of proteins.