title: New insights into the rat spermatogonial proteome: identification of 156 additional proteins.
abstract: Despite the essential role played by spermatogonia in testicular function, little is known about these cells. To improve our understanding of their biology, our group recently identified a set of 53 spermatogonial proteins using two-dimensional (2-D) gel electrophoresis and mass spectrometry. To continue this work, we investigated a subset of the spermatogonial proteome using narrow range immobilized pH gradients to favor the detection of less abundant proteins. A 2-D reference map of spermatogonia in the pH range 4-9 was created, and protein entities fractionated in a pH 5-6 2-D gel were further processed for protein identification. A new set of 156 polypeptides was identified by peptide mass fingerprinting and tandem mass spectrometry. These polypeptides corresponded to 102 different proteins, which reflect the complexity of post-translational modifications. Seventy-nine of these proteins were identified for the first time in spermatogonia. All identified proteins were classified into functional groups. This work represents a first step toward the establishment of a systematic spermatogonia protein database.
authors.affiliation: GERM-INSERM U.435, Campus de Beaulieu, Université de Rennes I, 35042 Rennes Cedex, Bretagne, France.
authors.forename: Emmanuelle
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Com
authors.forename: Bertrand
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Evrard
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Roepstorff
authors.forename: Florence
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Aubry
authors.forename: Charles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pineau
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D016208:Databases, Factual; D015180:Electrophoresis, Gel, Two-Dimensional; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D008297:Male; D010449:Peptide Mapping; D020543:Proteome / Q000032:analysis*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D019032:Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization; D013093:Spermatogonia / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D020543:Proteome