Proteomic profile of bovine embryos (Bos taurus indicus) produced in vitro
Bovine, Embryo, Proteome, Blastocyst, LC/MS/MS.
Due to limited knowledge of the proteome in mammalian embryos, the present study was conducted to characterize the proteomic profile of fresh bovine embryos produced in vitro. The blastocysts were evaluated in triplicate with pools of 25 embryos per replicate, and their extracted proteins were analyzed using nanoLC -MS/MS, followed by identification in the UniProtKB database (Uniprot – http://www.uniprot.org/). The identified proteins were classified according to their molecular mass, isoelectric point, enzymes, prediction of post-translational modifications and analyzed in terms of gene ontology (GO) and interatoma for functional enrichment of the embryo's proteome. 84 proteins were identified in fresh B. taurus embryos. The biological processes of these proteins are mainly related to cellular processes, localization and transport. According to molecular function, proteins were most associated with binding, ion binding and regulation of molecular function. In the GO referring to subcellular location, most of the proteins found were present in the extracellular space, cytoskeleton and cytoplasm. In the analysis of the interaction network, an important bridge, GAPDH, was presented, which connects two large protein hubs, one consisting of several keratin isoforms and the other composed of different proteins, mainly protease inhibitors. The results allow us to conclude that most of the identified proteins are potentially associated with biological processes, such as cellular process, localization and transport, which are fundamental for the development of in vitro produced bovine embryos.