Contribution of proteomics research to understanding Botrytis biology and pathogenicity

Abstract

Recent work has clearly shown the capacity of proteomics-based methodologies to establish the roles played by specific proteins in different biological processes. Beyond the study of genes, it has been established that proteins are the relevant set to be analyzed in research aiming to solve specific biological questions. Proteomics approaches can be categorized according to three different methodologies; gel-based, mainly two-dimension gel electrophoresis (2-DE); gel free, based on liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS); and quantitative proteomics, by isobaric markers. Most of these methodologies have been applied to studies of the proteome of Botrytis cinerea. Since the publication of the first proteomics report on Botrytis, technological advances have accelerated the identification of global protein content. Clearly, the publication of the B. cinerea genome has been of tremendous value to the proteomics research community; this has supported the accurate identification, through MS, of this fungus’ peptides. This landmark event has greatly facilitated the development of proteomics studies exploring the biology of the fungus; to date, mainly mycelium samples have been used. Only a few reports have aimed at the study of fractions of the total proteome, and all of these are focused on the secretome. The role of several particular proteins related to fungal pathogenicity, metabolism, biology, etc. has been elucidated, but the number of Botrytis proteins found, as a proportion of the total proteins predicted from the genome, remains below 10 %. There is much work to be done.