title: iTRAQ-based Protein Profiling and Fruit Quality Changes at Different Development Stages of Oriental Melon.
abstract: Oriental melon is one of the most popular crops for its nutritional and flavour quality. Components that determine melon quality, such as sugar, colour, texture, flavour and aroma, among other factors, accumulate in different developmental stages. Thus, correlating the proteomic profiles with the biochemical and physiological changes occurring in the oriental melon is very important for advancing our understanding of oriental melon quality in the ripening processes.
  
  
  
  iTRAQ-based protein profiling was conducted on 'YuMeiren' oriental melon fruit at different developmental stages. Physiological quality indices, including firmness, rind colour, soluble solids content (SSC), ethylene production, sugar content and volatile compounds were also characterized during four maturity periods of the melon, including 5, 15, 25 and 35 days after anthesis (DAA). A principal component analysis (PCA) revealed that the aroma volatiles at 5 DAA and 15 DAA were similar and separated from that of 35 DAA. More than 5835 proteins were identified and quantified in the two biological repeats and divided into 4 clusters by hierarchical cluster analysis. A functional analysis was performed using Blast2GO software based on the enrichment of a GO analysis for biological process, molecular function and cellular components. The main KEGG pathways, such as glycolysis, α-linolenic acid and starch and sucrose metabolism, were analyzed. The gene family members corresponding to differentially expressed proteins, including lipoxygenase (CmLOX01-18) and alcohol acetyltransferase (CmAAT1-4) involved in the α-linolenic acid metabolic pathway, were verified with real-time qPCR. The results showed that the expression patterns of 64.7% of the genes were consistent with the expression patterns of the corresponding proteins.
  
  
  
  This study combined the variation of the quality index and differentially expressed proteins of oriental melon at different developmental stages that laid the foundation for the subsequent protein and gene function validation.
authors.affiliation: College of Horticulture, Key Laboratory of Protected Horticulture of Education Ministry and Liaoning Province, Collaborative innovation center of protected vegetable suround Bohai gulf region Shenyang, Shenyang Agricultural University, Liaoning, 110866, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Xiaoou
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: College of Horticulture, Key Laboratory of Protected Horticulture of Education Ministry and Liaoning Province, Collaborative innovation center of protected vegetable suround Bohai gulf region Shenyang, Shenyang Agricultural University, Liaoning, 110866, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Jingjing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: College of Horticulture, Key Laboratory of Protected Horticulture of Education Ministry and Liaoning Province, Collaborative innovation center of protected vegetable suround Bohai gulf region Shenyang, Shenyang Agricultural University, Liaoning, 110866, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Xiaohui
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.affiliation: College of Horticulture, Key Laboratory of Protected Horticulture of Education Ministry and Liaoning Province, Collaborative innovation center of protected vegetable suround Bohai gulf region Shenyang, Shenyang Agricultural University, Liaoning, 110866, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: College of Horticulture, Key Laboratory of Protected Horticulture of Education Ministry and Liaoning Province, Collaborative innovation center of protected vegetable suround Bohai gulf region Shenyang, Shenyang Agricultural University, Liaoning, 110866, People's Republic of China. hyqiaaa@126.com.
authors.forename: Hongyan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Qi
mesh_terms: D028463:Cucumis melo / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism; D005638:Fruit / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism / Q000592:standards; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D053858:Metabolic Networks and Pathways / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D040901:Proteomics
chemical_list: D010940:Plant Proteins
keywords: Development Stages; Gene Expression; Oriental Melon; Proteomics; iTRAQ