Systematic Proteomics Study on the Embryonic Development of Danio rerio

The early development of zebrafish (Danio
rerio) is a complex and dynamic physiological process
involving cell division,
differentiation, and movement. Currently, the genome and transcriptome
techniques have been widely used to study the embryonic development
of zebrafish. However, the research of proteomics based on proteins
that directly execute functions is relatively vacant. In this work,
we apply label-free quantitative proteomics to explore protein profiling
during zebrafish’s embryogenesis, and a total of 5961 proteins
were identified at 10 stages of zebrafish’s early development.
The identified proteins were divided into 11 modules according to
weighted gene coexpression network analysis (WGCNA), and the characteristics
between modules were significantly different. For example, mitochondria-related
functions enriched the early development of zebrafish. Primordial
germ cell-related proteins were identified at the 4-cell stage, while
the eye development event is dominated at 5 days post fertilization
(dpf). By combining with published transcriptomics data, we discovered
some proteins that may be involved in activating zygotic genes. Meanwhile,
137 novel proteins were identified. This study comprehensively analyzed
the dynamic processes in the embryonic development of zebrafish from
the perspective of proteomics. It provided solid data support for
further understanding of the molecular mechanism of its development.