Changes in the Gallus gallus proteome induced by Marek's disease virus

Marek's disease virus (MDV) is a highly oncogenic avian herpesvirus. We have used a modified MudPIT analysis to examine the effect of MDV infection on the chicken proteome. We identified 3561 unique nonphosphorylated peptides, representing 1460 chicken proteins, in a mock-infected sample versus 4240 unique nonphosphorylated peptides, representing 1676 proteins, in an MDV-infected sample. Of these unique peptides, 59.1% from the mock- and 49.6% from the MDV-infected samples were detected in both samples, and for the represented proteins, 69.1% from the mock- and 60.2% from the MDV-infected samples were common to both samples. In terms of phosphorylation, 357 and 506 phosphopeptides, representing 342 and 483 proteins, were detected in the mock- and MDV-infected samples, respectively. At the phosphopeptide level, 10.1% from the mock- and 7.1% from the MDV-infected samples overlapped, and for the represented phosphoproteins, 12.0% from the mock- and 8.5% from the MDV-infected samples were common to both samples. There were no significant differences in the hydropathicity values and number of transmembrane domains of the identified protein sets. Subtle differences were observed for subcellular localizations of the identified proteins. These results suggest that MDV infection may alter host cell biochemistry by perturbing the host's proteomic composition.