Quantitative plant phosphoproteomics

Abstract

Protein phosphorylation is a major post-translational modification in plants crucial for the regulation of diverse cellular functions. In the early stages of this field, efforts were focused on the qualitative detection, identification, and cataloging of in vivo protein phosphorylation sites. Recently these studies have advanced into utilizing quantitative mass spectrometric measurements, capable of dynamically monitoring changes in phosphorylation levels in response to genetic and environmental alterations. This review will highlight current untargeted and targeted mass spectral technologies used for quantitative phosphoproteome measurements in plants, and provide a discussion of these phosphorylation changes in relation to important biological events. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd.