Label-Free Quantitative Proteomic Analysis of Harmless and Pathogenic Strains of Infectious Microalgae, Prototheca spp.

Microalgae of the genus Prototheca (P.) spp are associated with rare algal infections of invertebrates termed protothecosis. Among the seven generally accepted species, P. zopfii genotype 2 (GT2) is associated with a severe form of bovine mastitis while P. blaschkeae causes the mild and sub-clinical form of mastitis. The reason behind the infectious nature of P. zopfii GT2, while genotype 1 (GT1) remains non-infectious, is not known. Therefore, in the present study we investigated the protein expression level difference between the genotypes of P. zopfii and P. blaschkeae. Cells were cultured to the mid-exponential phase, harvested, and processed for LC-MS analysis. Peptide data was acquired on an LTQ Orbitrap Velos, raw spectra were quantitatively analyzed with MaxQuant software and matching with the reference database of Chlorella variabilis and Auxenochlorella protothecoides resulted in the identification of 226 proteins. Comparison of an environmental strain with infectious strains resulted in the identification of 51 differentially expressed proteins related to carbohydrate metabolism, energy production and protein translation. The expression level of Hsp70 proteins and their role in the infectious process is worth further investigation. All mass spectrometry data are available via ProteomeXchange with identifier PXD005305.