Saprolegnia parasitica proteome

In this project, we made a comprehensive quantitative proteomic analysis of four defined developmental stages of S. parasitica (mycelium, primary cysts, secondary cysts and germinated cysts) to gain greater insight into the types of proteins specifically linked to each stage. A total of 2423 unique proteins were identified using qualitative (gel-based) and quantitative (iTRAQ, isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation) approaches. Of these, 358 proteins, associated with various biological processes, were found to be significantly enriched between different life cycle stages of S. parasitica. The transcript abundance of several cyst and mycelium enriched proteins was also checked by quantitative real-time PCR. This is the first large scale proteomic analysis on Saprolegnia and the data from this study will enhance our current knowledge about this pathogen by identifying biological processes key to each developmental stage.