MetazSecKB: the human and animal secretome and subcellular proteome knowledgebase

Area of Science:

• Proteomics
• Bioinformatics
• Animal Biology

Background:

• Protein subcellular localization is crucial for understanding molecular functions in organisms.
• Metazoan secretomes and subcellular proteomes are complex and vary significantly across species.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop MetazSecKB, a comprehensive knowledgebase for metazoan secretomes and subcellular proteomes.
• To analyze variations in proteome composition and protein family distributions across different animal species.

Main Methods:

• Collected over 4 million protein sequences from UniProtKB for 121 species.
• Assigned subcellular locations using curated experimental evidence and seven computational prediction tools.
• Enabled data searching, downloading, BLAST search, and community annotation.

Main Results:

• Identified significant variations in proteome and secretome sizes across metazoan species (secretomes range from 3-22%).
• Quantified major subcellular proteome proportions: cytoplasm (21-43%), nucleus (20-37%), plasma membrane (3-19%), and mitochondria (3-9%).
• Analyzed protein families in primate secretomes and found human secreted proteins are vital for development, signaling, and immunity.

Conclusions:

• MetazSecKB provides a valuable resource for studying metazoan secretomes and subcellular proteomes.
• Comparative analysis highlights evolutionary divergence in protein localization and function across animal species.
• Human secreted proteins play critical roles in diverse biological processes, including development and immune responses.