Comparative proteomics profile of lipid-cumulating oleaginous yeast: an iTRAQ-coupled 2-D LC-MS/MS analysis

Accumulation of intracellular lipid in oleaginous yeast cells has been studied for providing an alternative supply for energy, biofuel. Numerous studies have been conducted on increasing lipid content in oleaginous yeasts. However, few explore the mechanism of the high lipid accumulation ability of oleaginous yeast strains at the proteomics level. In this study, a time-course comparative proteomics analysis was introduced to compare the non-oleaginous yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, with two oleaginous yeast strains, Cryptococcus albidus and Rhodosporidium toruloides at different lipid accumulation stages. Two dimensional LC-MS/MS approach has been applied for protein profiling together with isobaric tag for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ) labelling method. 132 proteins were identified when three yeast strains were all at early lipid accumulation stage; 122 and 116 proteins were found respectively within cells of three strains collected at middle and late lipid accumulation stages. Significantly up-regulation or down-regulation of proteins were experienced among comparison. Essential proteins correlated to lipid synthesis and regulation were detected. Our approach provides valuable indication and better understanding for lipid accumulation mechanism from proteomics level and would further contribute to genetic engineering of oleaginous yeasts.