Proteomic characterization of phagosomal membrane microdomains during phagolysosome biogenesis and evolution

After their formation at the cell surface, phagosomes become fully functional through a complex maturation process involving sequential interactions with various intracellular organelles. In the last decade, series of data indicated that some of the phagosome functional properties occur in specialized membrane microdomains. The molecules associated with membrane microdomains, as well as the organization of these structures during phagolysosome biogenesis are largely unknown. In this study, we combined proteomics and bioinformatics analyses to characterize the dynamic association of proteins to maturing phagosomes. Our data indicate that groups of proteins shuffle from detergent-soluble to detergent-resistant membrane microdomains during maturation, supporting a model in which the modulation of the phagosome functional properties involves an important reorganization of the phagosome proteome by the coordinated spatial segregation of proteins.