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Title: Proteomic analysis of Caenorhabditis elegans

Author
item JEONG, PAN-YOUNG - YONSEI UNIV, SEOUL, KOREA
item NA, KEUN - YONSEI UNIV, SEOUL, KOREA
item JEONG, MI-JEONG - YONSEI UNIV, SEOUL, KOREA
item Chitwood, David
item SHIM, YHONG-HEE - KONKUK UNIV, SEOUL, KOREA
item PAIK, YOUNG-KI - YONSEI UNIV, SEOUL, KOREA

Submitted to: Book Chapter
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/27/2008
Publication Date: 4/21/2009
Citation: Jeong, P.Y., Na, K., Jeong, M.J., Chitwood, D.J., Shim, Y.H., Paik, Y.K. 2009. Proteomic analysis of Caenorhabditis elegans. In: Sheehan, D., Tyther, R., editors. Two-Dimensional Electrophoresis Protocols. New York,NY:Humana Press. p. 145-169.

Interpretive Summary: Nematodes are microscopic worms that attack plant roots and annually cause ten billion dollars of crop losses in the United States. A major problem with reducing nematode-induced crop losses is that safe and effective control measures for nematodes are not always available. One approach to developing new control measures is to determine which of the tens of thousands of proteins in nematodes are needed for their response to biological and environmental stresses; the biosynthesis of these proteins can then be disrupted in subsequent research. This paper describes investigations performed by a team of Korean scientists and an ARS scientist, in which the proteins of a nonparasitic, bacterial-feeding nematode were compared before and after exposure to heat or deprivation of food. This bacterial-feeding nematode is a useful animal to study most aspects of biology in plant-parasitic nematodes because it can be easily grown in the laboratory. The temperature and starvation stresses were discovered to induce the production of dozens of proteins and suppress the production of dozens more. The results are significant because they provide the first indication that some of these proteins are associated with the resistance of nematodes to nutritional or temperature stress. Consequently, these proteins will be used by scientists who are developing new methods for crop nematode control by interfering with the production of stress-related proteins.

Technical Abstract: Proteomic studies of the free-living nematode Caenorhabditis elegans have recently received great attention because this animal is a useful model platform for the in vivo study of various biological problems relevant to human disease. In general, proteomic analysis is performed in order to address a specific question with respect to differential changes in proteome expression under certain perturbed conditions. In this chapter, we focus on the gel-based proteomic analysis of C. elegans subjected to two specific stress conditions during development: induction of the dauer state for whole body protein expression and a temperature shift for egg protein expression. Utilizing these differently perturbed C. elegans protein samples, two-dimensional electrophoresis and differential in-gel electrophoresis methods have led to the discovery of remarkable aspects of the worm's biology. We also provide numerous details about the technical points and protocols necessary for successful experimentation.